Is it possible or acceptable to leave a restaurant without tipping the waitron?

* It is possible to not give a tip to a waiter or waitress. However, it is kind of rude. People working in restaurants often get minimal wage and what allows them to make a semi-decent or decent salary is their tips. Furthermore, waitressing is not as easy as it might look, since it's a high-pressure job. The general rule is between 10% to 15% of the bill. * Yes, it is possible. It's not exactly good etiquette if he or she did a good job, because usually waiters/waitresses get paid less than the minimum wage and are expected to make up the rest of their check in tips. If the waiter/waitress did not do a good job, it is acceptable to leave no tip or a small tip. But unless he or she just did a horriblejob, I recommend just leaving a small tip. * In a resturaunt, you need to tip anywhere between 15% and 25% (it's 2009 people) depending on service. Servers are only paid $2.33/hr and usually don't see any of that $$ because it is taken out for taxes. Servers often work very hard and have multiple tables. They do the best they can. If you get crappy service, which will sometimes happen, it is often because a resturaunt is short staffed on that shift and the server is being forced to handle more tables than they usually do. Or perhaps you were sat in their section at the same time another table was sat in their section. There are many reasons for sub par service and it's usually not that your server sucks at serving. You have bad days at the office and have had too much to juggle at once...servers are the same way, It's just more obvious to their customers. If you can't afford to tip 15-25%, then don't go out. We don't do our job for fun, we do it to pay the bills.