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A waiter is one who "waits" on tables, often at a restaurant or a bar. A female who "waits" on tables is often called a waitress. The gender-neutral server and collective waitstaff can also be used. Waiters and waitresses can also be employed in (mainly large) private households, but there such specialisation is rarer the general domestic staff performing the waiters function.

Waiting tables is one of the most common occupations in the U.S. (along with nursing, and teaching). The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that, as of May 2005, there are over 2.2 million persons employed as waiters and waitresses in the U.S.^[1]

Many employers' waiters and waitresses wear a uniform.

Contents 1 Duties of a waiter 2 Tipping 3 Waiters in fiction and film 4 References 5 See also

Waiters' duties include preparing tables for a meal, taking customers' orders, serving drinks and food, and cleaning up before, after and during servings in a restaurant. Depending on the restaurant, other less common duties may be required, such as singing birthday songs to customers who are celebrating a birthday. A theme restaurant may even require waiters to dance (e.g. Joe's Crab Shack). There are now event caterers that outsource waiter/s/esess to events and specific functions.

Silver service waiters are specially trained to serve at banquets or high-end restaurants. They follow specific rules of service and it is a skilled job. They generally wear black and white with a long, white apron (extending from the waist to ankle).

The head waiter or waitress is in charge of the staff of waiters and/or waitresses, and is also responsible for assigning seating. This person can also be referred to as the maître d'hôtel. Some restaurants employ busboys or busgirls to assist the waiters and/or waitresses.

The English writer, Wilfred Gowers-Round, wrote a number of Rules For Waiters that he called a "Manifesto" ^[2]:

• A waiter's job is to serve and never to impose himself.
• The goal of waiting is inconspicuous service.
• Waiters must be clean and smart and should never wear cologne.
• Under no circumstances should a waiter ever touch a diner.
• Wine glasses should never be filled too full.
• Unasked advice should never be offered.
• If diners are content to pour the wine themselves, let them.
• Unless asked, no plates should be removed until all have finished.
• Women diners should be afforded respect equal to men.
• The bill should be placed on the table without ceremony.

Main article: Tip

In the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, most other Western countries and the Middle-East, it is customary for customer to pay tip to a waiter or waitress after a meal. In many U.S. states, waiters and waitresses, like other "tipped" employees, can be paid a lower minimum wage than other occupations. For example, waiters and waitresses in Georgia are generally paid around $2.13 an hour. Tips are commonly between 10% and 20% of the total bill, depending the level and quality of service. In the UK around 10% is a standard tip. In restaurants where a ‘service charge’ is automatically applied (which is usually between 10% and 15%) an additional voluntary tip is not usually given. Service charges are normally optional and often only apply to large parties.

In contrast, waiters and waitresses in Japan refuse tips, which are sometimes even considered an insult. It is believed there that leaving a tip implies that the waiter or waitress is not being paid enough by his or her employer, or that the customer believes the server must be paid extra to deliver a proper service.^{[citation needed]}

Tipping is not customary in Asia including Australia and New Zealand and is not factored into wages of waitstaff. However, tips are appreciated especially if the customer or party has been unusually difficult or has left a mess. For example, parents of small children may leave a small tip.

• William Somerset Maugham: Of Human Bondage
• James M. Cain: Mildred Pierce
• Terrence McNally: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (filmed as Frankie and Johnny)
• Garçon! (Claude Sautet; France, 1983)
• Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) in Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
• Tyler Durden from Fight Club
• Reservoir Dogs features a lengthy dialog on the principles of tipping. Pulp Fiction has a brief cameo by Steve Buscemi as a cynical Buddy Holly-lookalike waiter
• Various characters from the 2005 film Waiting...
• Buscemi plays a waiter again in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes.
• It Could Happen to You
• Cocktail with Tom Cruise as a barman
• Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) from Office Space
• Trixie Norton (Regina Hall) and Alice Kramden (Gabrielle Union) as waitresses in The Honeymooners.
• Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers mysteries, in which Henry the waiter always solves the mystery

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

1. ^ U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics (24). Occupational Employment and Wages - Waiters and Waitresses. US Department of Labor. Retrieved on December 31, 2006.
2. ^ http://icscotland.icnetwork.co.uk/eatdrink/restaurants/guide/glasgow/tm_headline=drop-the-bread-donkey-please&method=full&objectid=14374034&siteid=50141-name_page.html

• Garçon
• Table service