I have very mixed feelings about it TBH.

It was a bigger place that would staff for surges in customers. "Better" WWs would get better sections and shifts, so you would stay busier longer despite dips in overall volume. Not to mention more consistent tips.

This all created an incentive to be decent at your job, which involved a mix of knowing the menu, how to interact with customers, and multitasking/path optimization to turn your tables. I routinely did 20,000 to 30,000 steps a shift. Not everyone figured it out or wanted to do that amount of work, so the low end of the staff had a decent amount of turnover.

On the higher end of the scale you could clear $200-$300/shift working in casual dining, depending on the day of the week, without any education barriers. That's $20-30/hour or $42-$60k/year. You weren't getting rich, but that's enough to put you around median income levels. There were lifers who had been doing it for decades.

I don't see a shift to hourly pay making up the difference for the higher earners.

That minimum wage for servers can be as low as $2.13 an hour, depending on the state. The amount and how it is applied varies widely and all of the minimums are pretty low. That server needs every last dollar.

EDITED TO ADD: this conversation goes on for a while in which another person goes out of their way to mischaracterize US law in multiple ways. I stopped responding simply because the law doesn't say what they think it does, and they're trusting you not to look carefully at external sources. I have linked them so you can look through them yourself and not have to rely on someone simply asserting "That doesn't say that." Well, see it for yourself.

This person wants to get eyes on the minutiae in order to draw attention away from what I started with: that minimum wage for servers is absolute shit, not all servers are guaranteed even that, and they need every dollar. I have yet to be corrected on that.

If paying servers a living wage is something important to you, as it is to me, don't be fooled: what servers actually go home with, and the laws that dictate that amount, are a complete fucking mess, there are literally exceptions and variations of the law in EVERY state, and it all adds up to hard-working servers not getting paid their due because people fight very hard to defend the tipping system, based on racism and slavery, exactly as it stands.

Handy links:

What servers make in the United States as a full-time job -- Salary.com

Compare and contrast this with the 2026 federal poverty guidelines (used for SNAP, Medicaid, WIC, etc)
Federal Poverty Level Tables -- 2026

(Note: I linked a third party site because official HHS poverty guidelines pdf publication returns an error)

The US Department of Labor Reference Guide to FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) -- dol.gov

The first table I linked to, in my comment above; note especially the tip credits:
Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage - Fair Labor Standards Act -- dol.gov

While service workers in restaurants, hotels, bars, and elsewhere would now be covered under [FLSA], the 1966 amendments to the FLSA created a “tip credit.” The tip credit allowed employers to count the tips received by their staff against 50% of the minimum wage they were required to pay—effectively establishing a separate “tipped minimum wage” set at half the regular minimum wage. Subsequent amendments to the FLSA adjusted the level of the tipped minimum wage to varying percentages of the regular minimum wage, reaching as high as 60% in the 1980s. In 1996, the FLSA was amended again to raise the federal minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15. However, the bipartisan deal that was struck in Congress to achieve this increase decoupled the tipped minimum wage from the regular minimum wage. The deal locked the tipped minimum wage statutorily at $2.13 per hour (50% of $4.25), the level at which it had been set in 1991. -- quoted from Tipping is a racist relic and a modern tool of economic oppression in the South -- Economic Policy Institute, June 2024

The same information, but with minor explanations in an easier to read format:
Tipped & Youth Minimum Wage by State: 2025 Table for Employers

A specific tip amount, yeah. Minimum wage is pretty low compared to 20% tips. Fully agree that just having a living wage across the board would be the best solution, though.

Caelsar? (okay the pun was bad sorry)

Every time they ask you for more money is more friction, and you're more likely to be aware of how much you're spending. They'd rather you just order food without thinking about prices until the bill comes.