Labour & prime cost
Labour Cost & Sales Per Labour Hour
Am I over-staffed, and what is each labour hour actually returning?
Labour percentage tells you what labour costs relative to sales. Sales per labour hour tells you what each scheduled hour returns. Watching only the percentage hides a slow shift that was staffed correctly for a busy one.
Your numbers
A worked example is already loaded. Replace any field with the figures from the source named beside it.
The answer
Labour cost
25.8%
$70.99 in sales per labour hour
- Sales per labour hour$70.99
- Average labour cost per hour$18.31
- Labour cost$8,900
- Labour hours486
- Guests per labour hour2.55
- Labour cost per guest$7.18
- Average spend per guest$27.82
Labour cost, % of sales
Operator survey- Full-service restaurant (median, all respondents)36.5%
- Full-service, profitable operators (median)34.2%
- Full-service, operators reporting a loss (median)42.9%
- Limited-service restaurant (median, all respondents)31.7%
- Limited-service, profitable operators (median)30%
Reported by operators to an industry association and published as a median.
This figure includes salaries, wages, and benefits. The gap between profitable and unprofitable operators — 34.2% against 42.9% — is the most useful line here.
Source: National Restaurant Association, 2025 Restaurant Operations Data Abstract (2024 data, 900+ operators) — overall labor-cost medians (2025)
03 Show the arithmetic
04 What the answer leaves out
- Labour percentage and sales per labour hour move in opposite directions on a slow night. Read them together.
- State whether your labour cost includes payroll burden and keep that choice consistent between periods.