A WAITER S EARNINGS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 817, 22 March 1910, Page 4

A WAITER S EARNINGS.

THE TIPPING QUESTION

What do a waiter’s tips per week average in a big New York hotel ? Phis was the question before a jury in the Supreme Court recently, when a waiter’s wife sued for a separation, and asked for liberal alimony, because, as she alleged, her husband earned a week. Affidavits were pro duced showing that the man received a month in wages, and evidence was given that the rest ol his earnings consisted of lips. It appeared further that the same waiter once worked at a popular restaurant of an almost all-night variety, and in those days took weekly. His wife claimed at lease weekly as alimony, and the husband offered 16s. He denied that he earned more than £5 weekly. The case was not completed when the Court adjourned. It was intimated that the waiter’s takings were not all his, because custom compelled the payment of what Americans call “rake off,’' or commission to his superiors, even the cook and others sharing the swag. The agreed to maintain and educate his children, and objected to his savings in banks being attached, because he had promised dowries to his i daughters. | The assertion made has excited 1 ;uuch 'omment. An investigation : shows, however, that the average : A me . u:,in does not lip any mote ■ uau ihe average European, and i the practice of tipping is not quite so general in New York as in England, whence it was transplanted. “The people who give big tips,” said one big restaurant proprietor, “are usually drunk. Twelve to sixteen shillings daily would be good average tips in the best houses, provided that the waiter was efficient. Bad waiters get small tips.” After full enquiry (writes a journalist), I found confirmation in my own personal experience that Americans in New York give in tips about xo per cent, of the bill, seldom less, seldom more. The idea of getting a hundred dollars a week, chiefly by tips, is ridiculed on all sides as the mere imagination of the waiter s wife. A canvass at the very hotel where the aforesaid waiter was employed showed that 12s a day was considered a good average for the best waiters. These are experienced men, speaking two or three languages, and receiving ,£5 a mouth in regular wages. One of the managers of the hotel declared that there was not a waiter in New York earning ,£2O in tips, and it there was he would apply for that post himself.