> If the waiter doesn’t make the sale, he doesn’t get paid.
I think you’ve answered your own question there. Waiters don’t “make” sales. At best they up-sell and cross-sell.
The waiter generating any sales activity at all: the decision to purchase was already made the instant you walked into his employer’s restaurant. From that point on, there is no competition: he is either going to order from the waiter (become a customer) or on the rare occasion, he is going to walk (not become a customer). The only decision he will be making is deciding how much he is going to spend, and what on.
That is the difference between an order taker and a salesman. Order takers should not / usually do not receive commission because they generate no sales activity.
> If the waiter doesn’t make the sale, he doesn’t get paid. Heck, sometimes he makes the sale and still gets screwed, which seems like something awfully unlike “charity.”
If the waiter (who is an order taker and not a salesman) “gets screwed”, who is “screwing” him? It isn’t the customer, it is his employer. His employer makes his margins regardless The Tip is an entirely optional act of charity by the customer for the waiter: it is actually the employer’s responsibility to ensure his staff is paid adequately.
Why should the wait staff carry the business risk for the restauranteur? If you opened a gas station, would you expect your staff to be paid by customers tipping them? Of course not: paying your staff would be your business risk.
If you opened a hobby shop, would you expect your customers to pay your staff a percentage in addition to the cost of the model aeroplane they just bought? No, that would be silly: staffing is a business risk borne by the business owner.
So why should restaurants be immune? Paying underpaid restaurant staff via tips is an act of charity.
LOL, got it.
That is the difference between an order taker and a salesman.
Then it must have been some kind of remarkable bit of randomness that always had the same waiters in my restaurants racking up the most sales.
As for the other comments, what should be is an interesting thought experiment, but ultimately irrelevant. The wage structure for waiters is set up by law. Employers could pay more than required by law(some do), but the food biz is extremely competitive and low margin, and they would be putting themselves at a disadvantage.