The entire F and B industry has totally changed since you were involved. There are more restaurants, and more and more expensive restaurants, where indeed good servers can make a thousand a week in tips, a lot of which is cash.
In a way, it’s a great training ground for entrepreneurs, because in a way, servers work for themselves. They are almost like brokers. They have their customers and they have the provider - they are the conduit. If they are good, they make good money.
If they are real good, they get to work in a more expensive place - ie - a place where they’ll make more money. They work their way up like a farm system in baseball almost.
In addition, waiters/waitresses “tip out” to the bartender, the sushi chefs, etc - again, part of the business chain.
Now, 20-25% tip should be only reserved for outstanding service and great food (yes, I know, not the servers fault, but not the customers fault either). But the system is great training for the free enterprise system.
Friend’s daughter is a server at Cafe Boulud on Palm Beach. She can make $500/night on a good night in the season.
I’ve seen it from the golf perspective where clubs went to a no-tipping policy (with much higher hourly wages) in order to not have members one-upping each other. What results is overall good service in most cases, but gone is the exceptional service.
It also creates clock milkers. In the day, you hustled, made your tips, cleaned the place up, and got the hell out of there. Now everyone is on island time, which I don’t consider a good result.