Datasets

Description: Food servers’ tips in restaurants may be influenced by many factors, including the nature of the restaurant, size of the party, and table locations in the restaurant. Restaurant managers need to know which factors matter when they assign tables to food servers. For the sake of staff morale, they usually want to avoid either the substance or the appearance of unfair treatment of the servers, for whom tips (at least in restaurants in the United States) are a major component of pay.

In one restaurant, a food server recorded the following data on all customers they served during an interval of two and a half months in early 1990. The restaurant, located in a suburban shopping mall, was part of a national chain and served a varied menu. In observance of local law the restaurant offered seating in a non-smoking section to patrons who requested it. Each record includes a day and time, and taken together, they show the server’s work schedule.