This issue is the one most cited behind the new fixed (meaning: included) tipping rates at many top-end restaurants, including Thomas Keller's. Daniel Boulud mentions that a promising sous-chef left his kitchen to wait tables, because that's where there was money to be made. I've waited tables in several restaurants, and I know it can be hard work. The pay can sometimes be low: I once worked in a place where the owner got all the tips, and we subsisted on minimum wage (needless to say, there was a high turnover on staff there). But in general, waiting tables pays much, much better than other jobs that also require hard work. I can't imagine that the constant whining by waiters, a la Waiter Rant, gets much sympathy from kitchen staff... or anyone else working a low-wage, customer service job.