I waited tables for 2 years in college. It sucks. If the person handing you your take out order is also the person waiting on tables (i.e. a server), then they are the one who rang in your order, and those sales go on their sales. Which means they have to claim a tip on them whether they got one or not.
Most restaurants (I'm not talking about really nice ones.. I don't know much about their inner workings) work like this: Servers and bartenders get tips from their customers. Bartenders are required to tip out their busboy/barback and food runners. Servers tip out their busboys, bartenders, and food runners. (If a different person is bringing food to most of the tables than the person waiting on them, that's the food runner). So if you tip your server 15%, after their tipouts they usually take home about 8% of that, which, at least in OH, is the MINIMUM they can claim they made off of their sales. I never met a server that didn't claim at least 10%, just to keep themselves safe from any IRS audits, etc. Which means they are often claiming more than they actually made that night. (Although I admit there are exceptions, and some nights they claim less. It usually balances out from the weekend nights and weekdays).
And yes, servers do make
less than $3/hour from the restaurant. (Bartenders usually make a little more). I think if they should just be paid normal wages, too. And then tips would be "extras" for great service, like their original intention.
I tip 20%, unless the service is poor. Then I tip 15%, because I know they'll see about 1/2 of that. If it's exceptional, I'll tip more.
There used to be a great site called
bitterwaitress, but I don't know if it's still up.