I was reluctant to reply to this post, but I checked it out and found that Amtrak labor contract hourly rates are public information. So anyone who wanted to find out through the Freedom of Information Act could get this information if they really wanted to, so here it is:
Effective with the ratification of the April 2004 ASWC (Amtrak Service Workers Council) contract between NRPC and its OBS workers, all of whom belong to one of these three unions: Hotel Employees and Resturant Employees International Union (HERE), Transportation Communications International Union (TCU) and Transport Workers Union of America (TWU).
The pay system is based on a scale determined by the years of seniority one holds in the craft in which they have qualified. Under the contract, if you can hold a regular job, defined as an employee can work a regularly scheduled job that the employee made a job bid on without being displaced by another employee holding more seniority (commonly known as "bumping") sets the standard for the scale. Here are the numbers for an employee whose is being paid 100% of their craft's pay ceiling (per hour):
Train Attendants (coach, sleeper, business, etc.) 18.86
Service Attendants (dining car waiters) 18.86
Lead Service Attendant (cafe/lounge/dinnette attendants) 19.50
LSA Diner (dining car stewards) 21.93
Food Specialist (second cook/dishwasher) 20.30
Chef (kitchen manager/held responsible for food stock) 20.66
For example, an employee working as a Train Attendant in the first bracket (75% of ceiling) makes $14.15 an hour, the second bracket (80% of ceiling) makes $15.09 and etc. The brackets are in stages of five years of an employee's seniority in their particular working craft.
It is important to note that tipping is an essential part of the railroad service culture and failure to tip results in a negative passenger profile, especially if you become known to the Amtrak community as a "regular", of being a "zero." I can tell you from experience, regardless of whether you think it is right or wrong, you'll get what you "pay for." Good tippers get good service, zeros get little if any service beyond the minimal job description of the attendant's job assignment. Remember that the attendant determines what he or she is willing to do for you. With the exception of making beds before the train arrives at its endpoint, service provided to the passengers (in reality) is solely at the attendant's descretion. It's also important to remember that these hourly rates are to provide professional yearly salaries to people who spend more days out of the year away from home than in other domestic jobs, living on the train day after day getting only four hours of sleep in a 24 hour period and working in a demanding service environment that is in an industrial environment constantly under fire from managers that don't help you by letting broken equipment go onto the road day in and day out. It doesn't matter how much one makes in salary, good service in America , especially on the train, deserves good gratuity. If you can't afford to provide gratuity to your sleeping car attendant and waiter in the diner, then you can't afford to take a trip by train!