our waitresses make $70-80 dollars on good nights and $30-40 on steady nights. plus $10 hourly wage
that's based on 3-5 hour labour.
kitchen staff gets 10% of their total tips. i heard some restaurants take out a portion of waitress's tips from thetotal sale.
i can see how worthless oldhags and college girls trying to make a living with this wage. it's some and more...
In many restaurants, kitchen staff does not get any percentage of tips. Usually, the first to get a portion in the kitchen, if anyone, is the dishwasher.
Nothing used to piss me off more than when waitresses would come down into the kitchen and bitch about how slow it was because they only made "300 dollars USD" today (some bullshit day like a Tuesday). I dated a few waitresses and after averaging out what they would make over the year compared to me, I would really consider switching my profession.
The movement a bit ago where people were writing big checks/leaving giant tips for waitresses really bugged me. I'm not saying that waitresses don't work hard, but, don't compare it to the shit ass work kitchen staff deal with under crappy conditions from before you get there and until after you leave. Next time you want to throw a big check at restaurant staff, check out the kitchen first. Also, fyi, my perspective is from independently owned restaurants, not chains.. corporations change things and aren't really comparable IMO (have worked in both over the course of 20 years... no longer; however.)
As for the tipping thing - I generally tip a baseline amount for anyone.. if you suck and it's clearly your fault and not some other variable, then you get less. If you're a great server and you're not annoying and you actually know what youre talking about when it comes to the restaurant (probably only really matters are decent/nice places that aren't chains), then, you get more. Simple as that.
And yes, if you're cute as fuck, you generally get more too.... unless you really, really, really suck..