To the editor:

The legal minimum wage for a waiter or waitress is $2.13 an hour. The servers of Southeast Missouri (and the whole United States, for that matter) implore diners to keep that in mind they next time they go into a restaurant.

The standard tipping procedure in the United States is to tip by percentage. Fifteen percent of the bill is the polite amount to leave. Or, if the service was above average, leave 20 percent. You will be glad you did the next time you go to that restaurant, because you will receive even better service when your face is recognized.

If you can't afford to tip someone 15 percent of the cost of your meal, then you can't afford to go to a restaurant and be waited on. Go grab a burger at a fast-food place or get in line at a buffet and mill around in the same food 500 other people have milled around in. If you want service with a smile but don't want to pay for it, serve yourself. Then smile.

Waiters worker hard. We have a million things to do, plus we have to put on a happy face no matter what has gone wrong. It is not wonder the best tippers are people who have waited tables before themselves.

ELAINE THOMAS

Cape Girardeau