[jgoens]

I have been in the restaurant business my whole life. Other than recent events with minimum wages increasing, servers and busboys have been paid minimal wages and the notion of tipping is an incentive to provide quality service and be paid accordingly. Figure it this way: if a server worked a 6 hour shift and was only(no tips) paid 8$ an hour, after taxes they bring home about $40. Who can afford to work and make $200 a week? A server in a quality restaurant must be more than a high school kid or an illegal mopping a floor.
They should be people friendly, be able to handle pressure and have enough brains to know the menu and so forth. I know this is not the case some of the time..believe me, I deal with it all the time. I think many of you hit it on the head that the custom of tipping is based on the precedent of it is a low hourly wage that has opportunity to prove you are good.