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Good recommendation!  I looked at the job openings for a lead service attendant and chef.   The beginning pay for a lead service attendant is $18.08 per hour.  Presumably there are some subsequent bumps for satisfactory performance.  If the person works an average of 2,080 hours per year, which is the standard used by most HR people, his or wages would be $37,606 per year.   Amtrak's compensation package includes paid vacation, health insurance, pension funding, etc. These can add 30 to 40 per cent to base pay, especially for a government or quasi government organization, ala Amtrak, which tend to offer rich benefits. Splitting the difference at 35 per cent, the total compensation package could be worth $50,768 before any overtime for the lead service attendant. It looks like the compensation package for a chef would be in the neighborhood of $53,800. Presumably the numbers for a service attendant would be slightly lower than those for a lead service attendant. In any case, these numbers square with those shown in the BLS tables. According to the BLS, the average hourly wage in the United States at the end of October was $23.58. This would include all workers from relatively low skilled to highly skilled. In a sense the number is meaningless, but it is a starting benchmark. Assuming Amtrak's on-board service personnel get a bump in their wages upon satisfactory performance, it appears that their compensation packages compare favorably with those across the board as a whole.   The compensation for most beginning jobs is 80 per cent of the mid point for the job. If this is true for the Amtrak service attendent job, the mid point would be $22.60 per hour, which would put them very close to the national average.  What I don't know, however, is how many hours an on-board Amtrak employee works per year and how much they earn in overtime. I was told by a Los Angeles crew person that the overtime can be significant.   The wait persons at my local Denny's get $2.62 per hour. They get no benefits, although this is about to change with the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act. They are dependent on tips for their survival. This does not appear to be the case for Amtrak's on-board service persons.  The Amtrak compensation numbers are in line with or better than those for airline cabin attendants. So back to one of my original points.  Why should a traveler tip an Amtrak waiter or car attendant when she is not expected to tip an airline cabin attendant?  Or a Greyhound bus driver?
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