you do receive a wage from the restaurant tho. and then you make bank on tips. your whining is getting in the way of your point.
I had a thought while working last night on this point. "Make bank on tips" is relative and isn't always true. And to the "you don't claim all your tips" point? That is only on cash tips. The vast majority of tips are credit card these days an all of those are claimed automatically.
In all fairness I didn't mean to say servers are the most important part of the restaurant. But, I do believe they are integral or you won't receive much return business. I have worked at a corporate restaurant where the food was meh and it made my job a lot more difficult. So I do understand the point that when the food is amazing if I make a mistake it is much less likely to effect the overall opinion of the customer.
Whereas you say you would return to a place with lousy service and great food, wouldn't you rather go somewhere that excelled in both aspects?
Now back to the point I was making. If you compare the $2.13 an hour to the benefits we have discussed on this board that SA get, then the tips that a server "makes bank on" is relative to money that could be received by the players. How inconceivable would it be for a SA to have performance standards they had to reach in order to receive the extra money for "going on dates" or "living the college lifestyle" as many posters have spelled out on this topic? My comparing it to waiting tables is only to show that there is already a federally approved standard for that method of payment.