Many managers work extensive hours and are paid a salary without overtime, and this can quickly lead to feeling undervalued, especially since many front-of-house managers previously work as servers, making hundreds in tips every night. In many restaurants, servers make more cash than managers do.
Do you know what the appropriate salary for every position in your restaurant is?
If you don’t, then we suggest you download and review the Restaurant Industry Salary Report created by the folks at The Restaurant Zone. This study gives you average salary for most defined positions in your operation. The metrics are separated by state as well as delivering a national average. This is particularly valuable as you can compare your current offerings to the local average in your market. Sure you will need to account for things like urban vs. ex-urban locations and local competition for talent, but having a bench mark is great place to start.
Looking at the national average for a couple of key positions you can see why our industry is experiencing difficulties recruiting quality people. The average salary for an Assistant Manager is $32,458. Assuming a 50-hour work week and no additional overtime compensation, that works out to just $12.48/hour. That’s less than many servers and bartenders make in tips alone. While we don’t judge anyone’s business decisions, if your assistants make less than the hourlies they manage, then you’re likely to have problems retaining them.
The real challenge here is balancing your bottom line with the importance of having the best people on your staff, especially for line managers.
Here’s a good rule of thumb: If your managers make less than your service staff and work more hours, then you can be confident they will eventually tire of the disparity. While there are ways to mitigate this, in the end, it’s a reality you may have created.
What is the Role of a Restaurant Manager
FAQ
What are the cons of being a restaurant manager?
Is it worth it to manage a restaurant?
How to negotiate salary for restaurant manager?
Can a restaurant manager have too much work?
However, in most cases, too much work is either the result of 2 things if we do not take understaffing and low money into account. The first reason a restaurant manager could have too much work on their plate is bad scheduling, organization, and focus on the wrong things.
Are restaurant workers poor?
Restaurant workers are much more likely than other workers to be poor or near-poor. One in six restaurant workers, or 16.7 percent, live below the official poverty line. The poverty rate for workers outside the restaurant industry is more than 10 percentage points lower, at 6.3 percent.
Why do workers leave the restaurant industry?
Workers gave clear reasons for leaving the industry. Well over half of workers, 62%, reported receiving emotional abuse and disrespect from customers, and 49% reported abuse from managers, according to the Black Box Intelligence survey. Of workers surveyed, 15% left the restaurant industry in the last year, and another 33% said that they hope to.
Why do restaurant managers leave their jobs?
In addition, restaurant managers encounter a lot of stress, and they might not make changes to the operation on their own. Also, many restaurants aren’t doing well; therefore, it is exhausting to work in such a place. As we can see, there are many reasons why restaurant managers leave their jobs.