Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Doesn’t Leave Tip at Restaurant
June 5, 2012 7:30 AM 
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is said to be worth some $20 billion dollars. Nonetheless, when his lunch bill came at the restaurant he and his wife ate at in Rome, Italy, he did not leave a tip on the $32 Euro ($39 US) tab. According to the British newspaper, The Telegraph, it wasn’t because the food or service was bad.
“I asked him ‘how was it?’ and he said ‘very good’”, the owner, identified only as Umberto, told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “I had gone up to him and said ‘Are you …?’ and he said ‘Yes’.”
However not leaving a tip at restaurant in Italy is not that unusual.
A waiter in Italy isn’t the underpaid part-time employee you might expect a waiter to be (and as they often are in the U.S.), so a tip isn’t making up the difference between their salary and a living wage. Instead, the waitstaff in Italy not only makes a living wage to begin with, they also get government health benefits and probably more paid vacation time than you do.
Still, one would think that someone with a net wealth of $20 billion might just find it generous to leave something, 10-20% perhaps, just to show their appreciation.
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