text: Most Portland restaurants already include include back-of-house employees in tip pools, or require front-of-house to give a percentage of food sales to the kitchen. A recent change in the law has made tip-pooling and tip sharing illegal. Which makes this a great time to move towards a gratuity-free system.
  
  We're taking here about small, independent restaurants trying to pay a steady, fair wage to industry professionals. Hardly a corporate ploy.