This is the correct behavior. The selector says find all tables, then fine all rows, and limit to everything after the first row, then find all data cells and limit to everything after the first two cells.

To accomplish what you want, you need to do:

$('table').each(function() {
    $(this).find('tr:gt(1)').each(function() {
        $(this).find('td:gt(2)').css('background-color', 'white');
    });
});

I disagree since its in the selector, I think it should scoped in the context of the parent "tr" selector, thus for each row greater than 1 cells greater than 2, for each row. Otherwise I would just do an array _slice or someting or a simple filter as a nested function.

Scott's right. Perhaps you wanted something like

:not(:first-child)