{"schema_version": 1, "id": "albany-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 102, "label": "Albany, GA MSA", "slug": "albany-ga-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:28:02.932171+00:00", "headline": "Albany restaurant pay splits: managers up, hourly roles slide.", "headline_summary": "Metro Restaurant Manager pay hit $60,366 against a declining $59,762 national figure, even as Crew pay fell to $22,819 and Dougherty County unemployment held at 4.6%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Dougherty County unemployment", "value": "4.6%", "context": "vs 2.7% in adjacent Lee County (July 2026)"}, {"label": "Restaurant Manager/GM pay, metro", "value": "$60,366", "context": "Up locally vs down to $59,762 nationally"}, {"label": "National restaurant job growth", "value": "+59,200 jobs (Aug)", "context": "Largest one-month gain since Jan 2023"}, {"label": "Georgia tipped minimum wage", "value": "$2.13/hr", "context": "Unchanged since 2009; FL rises to $15.00 Sept 30"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Management pay is climbing while hourly roles stall or slide.", "body": "Assistant Restaurant Manager pay rose to a metro median of $39,500, above the national figure, and Restaurant Manager/GM pay reached $60,366 locally versus a declining $59,762 nationally. Meanwhile Crew ($22,819) and Shift Manager ($27,558) advertised pay both moved down, suggesting Albany operators are consolidating investment in leadership retention rather than broad-based wage growth."}, {"headline": "Georgia's wage floor is a temporary cost advantage, not a permanent one.", "body": "Georgia's unchanged $7.25/$2.13 tipped minimum contrasts sharply with Florida's move to $15.00 on September 30, keeping Albany front-of-house labor costs structurally low. That gap widens regional recruiting risk if workers migrate toward higher-wage neighboring states, particularly in border-adjacent labor pools."}, {"headline": "National retention tailwinds may not reach Dougherty County.", "body": "Falling national quits and job openings point toward easing turnover costs industrywide, but Albany's core county unemployment rate (4.6%) sitting well above Lee County (2.7%) suggests uneven local absorption. Operators anchored in Dougherty County should treat national turnover improvement as a directional signal, not a local guarantee."}, {"headline": "Line Cook and Server pay stability masks back-of-house recruiting strain.", "body": "Local Line Cook pay ($26,984) sits meaningfully below the national median ($36,702), even as full-service restaurants nationally remain 3.6% below pre-pandemic staffing levels. Persistent gap may signal Albany kitchens are underpricing back-of-house talent relative to a tightening national full-service labor pool."}], "local_conditions": "Albany's metro labor market remains bifurcated: Dougherty County unemployment sits at 4.6% while adjacent Lee County holds at 2.7%, and the MSA has added jobs in only 25 of the last 60 months through June 2026, signaling structural rather than seasonal weakness. Against that backdrop, national restaurant hiring posted its strongest month since January 2023 (59,200 jobs added), suggesting Albany operators are competing for a shrinking pool of workers even as broader metro employment stalls.", "implications": "National restaurant data shows job openings down 27% since January and quits falling from 685,000 to 503,000, which typically eases turnover-driven labor cost pressure \u2014 but Albany's persistently soft Dougherty County job base means this national retention tailwind may not translate locally at the same pace. Georgia's frozen $7.25 minimum wage and $2.13 tipped floor keep front-of-house base costs low relative to Florida's climbing $15.00 threshold, giving Albany operators unusual margin flexibility that may not last if regional wage competition intensifies. Consider evaluating whether local Assistant Manager and GM pay increases are outpacing crew and shift-manager movement, since diverging tiers can signal where retention risk is actually concentrated.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Watch whether Dougherty County's elevated 4.6% unemployment rate narrows toward Lee County's 2.7% over the next two BLS releases, since convergence would suggest broader metro labor slack is absorbing into service-sector hiring, including restaurants."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Florida's minimum wage rise to $15.00 on September 30 could accelerate cross-border wage comparison shopping among tipped and hourly workers in south Georgia; monitor whether Albany advertised pay for Server and Crew roles needs to move defensively."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National restaurant job openings have fallen 27% since January, easing hiring competition \u2014 track whether Albany's advertised Crew and Shift Manager pay (both down this month) stabilizes or continues declining as a signal of loosening local labor demand."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "September BLS metro-level data (expected in coming weeks) will clarify whether Albany's structural job weakness \u2014 only 25 growth months out of 60 \u2014 extended into August, directly relevant to staffing confidence for Q4 seasonal planning."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33226.0, "metro_p50": 39500.0, "metro_p75": 50000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 39000.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 38601.0, "metro_p50": 50488.0, "metro_p75": 56062.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 51585.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 20800.0, "metro_p50": 22819.0, "metro_p75": 22880.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 29791.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 23392.0, "metro_p50": 26984.0, "metro_p75": 28719.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 36702.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 46000.0, "metro_p50": 60365.6, "metro_p75": 80691.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 59762.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 24873.5, "metro_p50": 27637.0, "metro_p75": 29354.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 34915.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25471.0, "metro_p50": 27558.0, "metro_p75": 28822.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 32649.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "September 2026", "files": {"html": "albany-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "pdf": "albany-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:32:59.445704+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/albany-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/albany-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}