Scorpio616
She did not tell the table about her preferences they assumed it by looking at her. The article in fact says that when Dayna(sp?) first went to the table and introduced herself they said, "Oh we thought you were going to say Dan," and had a little laugh. She brushed off the comment and gave them service like any other table. Apparently her service was not an issue with these people only their assumption of her sexual orientation. They happened to be correct in their assumption but I do not believe that excuses their behavior.
I myself have had people assume I was a gay man because I was waiting tables. I have no idea where this idea of only gay men wait tables came from but in my experience it is only true about 5-10% of the time based on the number of male servers I've worked with and the actual number of them that have been gay.
As for your second quote about why we have to pay other employees, that is common for every restraurant. Hostesses, bussers, and food expos/runners are usually paid $5/hr +tips. Those tips come from the servers and bartenders. Some places make servers pay 20% of their tips others find it more fair to take a percentage of their total sales (otherwise a server could say I didn't make that much tonight and tip out $5 when in fact they are leaving with $100) and divide it among these employees. It is completely legal as far as I know or else I've been getting screwed for over 12 yrs now at multiple locations.
In the long run the percentage of total sales is the most fair to the servers. If they provide excellent service and are tipped over the norm they are more likely to be able to actually receive that money. Case in point last night I only had a bartender working with me, I had 3 tables and rang up $400 in sales and made $85 before tip out. I paid the bartender $4 as opposed to $17 and the only thing he did for me was pour 2 beers for my first table. I was my own hostess, busser, and food expo.
On the flip side though it is common for servers who have a good night to buy a few pitchers of beer for the cooks, and if you worked the bartender really hard get a drink from him and leave a big tip. For the bussers/hostesses/expos if they continually do a good job you tell the manager to turn them loose on the floor if they are old enough.