A well run restaurant in the right location yields very high profit margins. My last boss used to tend bar at the venue until he bought it 4 years in at a discount because it was failing. He made the right adjustments, turned it into a Knoxville landmark and started turning profits of about 500k a year. I was salaried but he paid his bartenders and servers anywhere from 14-20$ an hour and his kitchen 20-25$ an hour.
In fact, restaurant owners in any country but ours pay their staff a living wage and manage to keep the doors open. Fact is, American restaurateurs are highly exploitative of their employees.
