An apology to waitstaff everywhere

[mhendo]

@billfish678

If the relative cost of eating out (compared to average income) has gone down over time that means if the servers are getting the same percentage off of something that costs less and less their relative income is going down compared to everyone elses.

Right.

And this, for some time at least, is exactly what was happening. In threads like this, i like to quote a post made by former SDMB mod manhattan, who worked in the financial sector and whose job involved tracking things like price trends. Here’s what he said about the issue in 2005:

@manhattan

Ah. But over the last several years, food inflation has been less than inflation generally and the food-away-from-home index has been growing more slowly still – the result of enormous competition in the industry. So some percentage creep on the tip has been necessary to keep real server wages constant. We’re starting to see some indications that the restaurant cost index is now moving up more quickly than general inflation, primarlily as some of the quick serve and casual-dining chains finally give in and try to pass through higher protein costs. It’ll be interesting to see if the trend continues and what, if anything, will be the public’s reaction as regards a “standard” tip.