Do you think more businesses are asking you to leave a tip? You're not alone, poll finds

As they dine out and shop during the holiday season, Americans are discovering more businesses are expecting them to tip service workers. That's leaving many customers unsure how much to tip and when.

However, most believe they should ignore suggested tip amounts and decide for themselves.

Tipping is common in service industries. An employer of a worker eligible for tips has to pay only $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that hourly pay combined with tips at least equals the federal minimum wage, says the Department of Labor. 

Insights into the nation's tipping culture are revealed in a Pew Research Center poll of nearly 12,000 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 7-27. Those surveyed were asked how they view tipping and whether they would tip in specific situations.

How have tipping expectations changed?

U.S. consumers even disagree on whether tipping is a choice or an obligation...

...and there's no consensus on knowing whether to tip for different kinds of services.

How do customers react to tip suggestions?

You're dining at a restaurant. How much will you tip?

What makes you decide to tip?

Quality of service is the deciding factor on whether a tip should be left and how much that tip should be. Factors on how much to tip differed from those on whether to tip by only a few percentage points.

The Pew Research Center poll was conducted with self-administered web surveys in English and Spanish taken by 11,945 U.S. adults from Aug. 7 to 27. The margin of sampling error is +/- 1.4 percentage points.

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SOURCE Paste BN Network reporting and research; Pew Research Center; Associated Press