HOSPITALITY staff have a tip for punters with a keen eye for good service: start paying for it.

Insiders have declared it is time Australia embraced the American gratuity system in a bid to lift the standards of hotels and restaurants and boost employee pay packets.

It follows a University of Melbourne study which suggests customers are leaving tips more than ever before.

PhD candidate John Frank Burgess assessed the origins, drivers and social consequences of tipping in Australia and the United States.

The research found tipping flourished in America in the early 1900s because a deregulated labour market forced waiters and bartenders to top-up dwindling pay packets with tips.

"Some would argue that tipping is un-Australian, but in reality it's where we are headed," Mr Burgess said.

"Australia's relatively well-regulated labour market has so far protected workers from the need to chase tips.

"But if we continue down a path of labour market deregulation, then sooner or later tipping will become normalised."

Traditionally, patrons in New York City include a 20 per cent tip for everything from housekeeping to buying a beer.

A 15 per cent tip is considered the norm across the US.

Sandy Hill Road director Matt Mullins, a Melbourne hotelier, said the tipping trend could lift service standards.

"I think Australians are tipping more and more often," he said.

"There is a lot of logic in it and I have no doubt if we had a system in Australia where staff derived a larger portion of their total income from tips, we would see better standards of service across every industry.''

He said during a recent US trip tipped up to 50 percent for the kind of exceptional service that you often don't get in Australia.

Prahan Hotel duty manager Dan Lancaster said Aussie customers increasingly looked for good service and tipped accordingly.

"I think staff try to do that little bit more, work up a rapport with their customers and hopefully it pays off,'' he said.