A measly fifteen percent! Is that asking to much?

I used to like people but then I became a waitress. My mother says I have a gift. My mother says that I am the best in my field. That there has never been a better server. My mother says that because she’s my mother and she has too. But the truth is I am very good at what I do. I wait on each table with an attitude that says” I woke up this morning looking forward to waiting on you specifically!” I greet each guest like I really am happy they are sitting there. I smile at each face in a way that says there is no one else in my world I would rather be smiling at. It is a lot harder than it looks to wait tables. It is not easy giving your best to a customer knowing there is a fifty chance that they are going to screw you out of a measly fifteen percent tip. When I was a kid my dad used to do this thing when we would go out to eat. He would place cash on the end of the table as the server approached. It was an amount that would obviously cover a twenty percent tip on a good sized meal. He would tell the server “here’s your tip, you can have it when we are done. The only catch is I will take a dollar away for every mistake you make.” We always had excellent service and our server always got a good tip. She knew what is was she was working for. She knew that her hard work was not going to waste. If My table of three that I had at lunch today had given me my tip of four dollars on a fifty dollar bill up front they would have been lucky to not have had their food spit in let alone received good service! I greeted them within one minute of arrival, got their drinks and had their order in the kitchen within ten minutes of them sitting down. I smiled at them and chatted them up about the weather while the elderly woman in their party tried to find something on the menu that she couldn’t complain about. I made drink recommendations. I suggested a mild flavored meal for the old fart. I did everything buy the book. I went above and beyond to make them feel like they were the only people I cared about. And the screwed me. I gave them my best, my one hundred percent and they gave me four dollars. Less than ten percent. What would have happened if I had given them my ten percent? Other than me getting fired? They would have been outraged! They would have asked to speak to my manager. They would have wanted their meal on the house! And they would have gotten it. Because they got less than ten percent of the best service possible. If I had said to them” you let me know what percent you are going to tip me and I will provide service accordingly” I would have been fired on the spot. Why is it that for any other job in this country there are laws protecting the employee’s right to be paid fairly for the job that they do? Why is it that if you work in one of the most difficult jobs there is you not only have to take a chance at getting screwed over on your pay, you have to smile the whole time? “Here I am, let me serve you and please kick me in the butt on your way out the door!”