Originally Posted by
JayhawkCO
...if we don't receive a tip, we lose money...
...I tip out 5% on my food, and 10% on my wine...
By not tipping me on the wine // I actually lost $5 for waiting on your table. Not to mention the opportunity cost insofar as I could have had a table in your place that I actually made some money off of. That doesn't pay bills unfortunately.
What you say is true, if you look at the small picture. But on the big picture, you serve hundreds if not thousands of people/tables. Every now and then, you make nothing, or even lose a bit. But over the year.... or even over one month, the final sum of tips can be surprisingly sufficient.
If not, there wouldn't be career servers.