MikeG:

Hi Mike. The 10% figure is my best guess based on the 2006 projections provided by the Nevada Dept. of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. You can download an Excel file of their data here:

http://www.nevadaworkforce.com/?PAGEID=6...

(Download the file on the right side of the page, the one called, "Las Vegas 2004-2014 Long Term Occupational Projections-Color Coded Excel.")

Included in my tally are taxi drivers, chauffeurs, bellhops, concierges, tour guides and escorts, hairdressers, manicurists, gaming dealers, hosts and hostesses, bartenders, waiters, non-restaurant servers and massage therapists. Since there are categories like maids and housekeepers, entertainers and performers, and musicians and singers, categories which would seem to include some people who get tips but not be wholly made up of them, the 10% is kind of guess.

So, out of 966,055 estimated workers in 2006, somewhere between 80,540 and 102,175 were tip workers. Somewhere between eight and eleven percent, in other words.

(Not included in either the total or the guess are strippers, whose numbers I could not find an estimate for.)

Thanks,
Brendan

For the interested (and, judging by my voice mail, there are a lot of you), here's how to get in touch with Barbara and Marshall Zucker and the Foreclosure Express:

Business Phone: 702 823-8230
Business Fax: 702 304-0845

Website: www.vegasforeclosureexpress.com
E-Mail: Marshall@vegasforeclosureexpress.com

Hope that helps.

- Brendan Buhler