Serving is an unskilled position. They should be able to make enough money to cover rent, bills, food, family and transportation…with at least something left over at the end of it that could be saved or used for leisure. In other words, they deserve to make as much as any other worker.

• Take down the order of what I want to eat
• Give that info to the kitchen
• Return with Food
• Ask if the food is good, and if a second round of ordering is needed
• Occasionally recommend the same dish, over and over

There is nothing that a server does that entitles them to a percentage of my bill. I was a server. On the whole, it sucks if you are not a pretty/hot/cute/desirable person.

Tipping in general is theft. Theft from the customer, and wage theft from the worker.

Minimum wage in Western Australia for a server back when I was one (15 years ago) was $22.50.

I worked my way up through restaurants to high end cocktail bars. My last casual job before I moved to salaried management paid $37 minimum to the bartenders. Salaries range from $65k for bar/floor manager to $90k for venue manager.

The one corporate owned bar I worked in liked to promote from within so if you were there long enough and worked your way through the management roles you would eventually work up to area manager then corporate roles earning $125k+. That wasn't for me though so I left that before moving up.

at a minimum, the normal minimum wage that everyone would normally get in their country, like any job.

Why is this job being looked at or treated differently then other employment?

Min wage, of course, like any other entry job. Not that I think it's "enough" or that they're properly compensated for their contribution, because the profit is almost always split amongst those who have never worked for it, but in Western Europe it's a "livable wage", IME. For instance, you can rent a studio apartment in the center of Marseille for about 500 euro, and min wage is like 1400 for 35h/week. With the "prime d'activité", which is some money the government can give you for having a job, you can get an extra 250-100 euro. It's manageable (without kids ofc)

At fancy restaurants, diners sit for longer and have more if an experience, and we're not going to rush them at all. So, 20% on four (because each table needs more attention) $100 tables, two or three times a night.

Except $100 is low for even two people, and tables will often be four or even six. Figure $2K a night in sales and you're closer to reality, $3K on the weekends or for a brunch shift. So at 22% (because anyone who can serve at that level pulls more than the 20% baseline) you're looking at $450-650 in gross tips.

But because no one works alone at that level, expect that a third to half of that will go to tipping out the bar staff, bussers, food runners, and backwaiters, so more like $250-400 in a six-hour shift, or about $50/hr... plus wages. At a fancy place. Based on my experience.

If you're slinging eggs at a diner you're much more subject to walk-in traffic but less subject to high rollers. You're also much more subject to the local cost of living, so here in Chicago you're probably still making $20-40/hr in tips after tipout, but in South Dakota a lot less... and your wage will be lower, too.

I have to quibble with the idea that a fine dining server works no harder than an egg-slinger, though, as someone who's done both. Fine dining takes a lot more attention, patience, and training; a lot of the work is preparation and goes unseen by the patrons — as it should be.

What are they paid outside the US?

I mean, that's going to depend radically on the country. Eritrea and France are not going to look very similar.

In nz its generally 22-32$ an hr. Shifts are 6-8hr 5-6 days a week.

For US I'd say whatever wage is required for them to make close to the median wage with 35-40 hr work.

I see median wage at $1200 per week (dam Americans are fucking rich) so id say they should be on $25-30 which puts them at around $1000 a week with 30-40hr work.

If we are just looking at median food/service wage its at $700 a week. So I'd say $17-$23 to reach that $700 a week with 30-40hr work is fair wages. A slight increase for most food/service roles compared with their current median. I'd expect it to be high in the expensive places like NY.

Here in bc the minimum wage(most likely the starting wage for a server) is 17.85 an hour but I've seen up to 25 I believe

So what I'm seeing from salary websites, in USD, Japan is about 15K, France about 24K, Poland a bit above 6K, India about 4K.

When you ask what a good wage is things get more complicated. The cost of living varies dramatically between these countries and regionally.

Fancy restaurants do pay more but also have more effort per table.

A diner is running closer to $10-50 per table meaning 2-10$ tips a table. Means theyd have to turn 10-40 times the tables in the same amount of time for an equivalent tip earning.

Fancy places also tend to have fewer patrons not tip, it still happens of course but it is less common.