WAITER'S TIPS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 8

WAITER'S TIPS.

WHAT DO THEY AMOUNT TOP . What do a waiter's tips per week' •average in a big hotel? This was the question before a jury in New York Supreme Court, when a waiter's .wife sued for a separation, and asked for liberal alimony, because, as she alleged, her' husband earned £20 a week. Affidavits were produced showing that the man. received £5 a month in wages, and evideiico was given that the rest of his earnings consisted of tips. It appeared further that the same waiter once worked at a popular restaurant of an almost all-night variety, and in those days took £14 weekly. His wife claimed at least £5 weekly as alimony, and the husband offered 16s. He denied that he earned more than* £5 weekly..

After full inquiry, a press correspondent found confirmation in his own personal experience that Americans in. New York give in tips 10 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* &5 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, spe&king two or three languages, and receiving £5 a month in regular wages. One of the managers of the hotel declared thai there not a waiter in _ Now York earning £20 in tips, and if thero 'was, he would apply for that post himself.