With respect to pay for restaurant servers, my feeling is and always has been that tipping based on the amount of the check is already not equitable.

I have a personal policy of always leaving a minimum tip of $5 for table service, regardless of the amount of the check. When 20 percent of the amount of the check is over $5, I will give 20 percent, rounded off to the next highest dollar amount.

If the service is exceptional, I tend to be very generous because I do, indeed, like to be treated well – I try to return that consideration to the server.

When I am in a high-end restaurant and am not rushed (in other words, they don’t want me out of there so they can turn the table), the food (in my opinion) is exceptionally good and the server is attentive but not intrusive, I am usually extremely generous.

I also bear in mind that many in restaurant service don’t share in many, if any, fringe benefits.

Now as far as the minimum wage for tipped workers is concerned, I’d have to see what effect it has on the overall pricing in the restaurant industry. I do think I’d eat out as often as I do now, and I really don’t think I’d change my personal tipping policy.

I’m sure there are many people not as generous as I am, and a few who are more generous, but I’d like to think that their tipping formulas will probably remain as they are if Portland’s tipped minimum wage increases.

Bruce Erwin Johnson

Portland