{"schema_version": 1, "id": "anniston-oxford-al-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 95, "label": "Anniston-Oxford, AL MSA", "slug": "anniston-oxford-al-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T06:08:31.549180+00:00", "headline": "Anniston restaurant pay splits: supervisors up, entry roles down.", "headline_summary": "Shift Manager advertised pay climbed to $34,528, outpacing the national median, while Crew pay fell to $24,267 as Alabama's statewide unemployment rate rose to 3.5%.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.0%", "context": "Aug 2026, down from 4.2% in July"}, {"label": "Calhoun County unemployment", "value": "2.6%", "context": "Tighter than metro's 4.0% headline rate"}, {"label": "Shift Manager advertised pay", "value": "$34,528", "context": "Up significantly, above $33,024 national"}, {"label": "Alabama leisure/hospitality job growth", "value": "+10,200 jobs", "context": "Year-over-year through Sept 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Shift Manager pay breaks from an otherwise soft local trend.", "body": "Shift Manager advertised pay rose significantly to $34,528, now above the $33,024 national median, while Crew, Line Cook, and Catering Manager pay all declined. Operators appear to be paying a premium to retain supervisory continuity as turnover nationally runs near 80% annually."}, {"headline": "Back-of-house pay gap with national rates looks structural.", "body": "Line Cook pay in Anniston sits roughly $10,700 below the national median, a wider spread than most other roles tracked. With BLS projecting 12% growth in cook employment nationally against only 2% for servers, this metro's below-market cook pay may increasingly limit back-of-house staffing capacity during peak demand."}, {"headline": "Federal tipped-wage rule change creates room to hold server pay flat.", "body": "DOL's October withdrawal of the 80/20 rule lets Alabama operators apply the $2.13 tipped cash wage to side work without threshold limits, removing a cost pressure point. Server pay in the metro held stable at $25,828 this month, consistent with limited near-term cash-wage pressure on front-of-house roles."}, {"headline": "Falling Assistant Manager pay cuts against a tightening state labor market.", "body": "Assistant Restaurant Manager pay dropped significantly to $36,472 even as Alabama's unemployment rate climbed to 3.5% and leisure and hospitality employment expanded. A thinning labor pool paired with declining advertised pay in this role may extend time-to-fill for management pipeline positions."}], "local_conditions": "Anniston-Oxford MSA unemployment sits at 4.0% as of August 2026, improved from 4.2% in July but still above Alabama's statewide 3.5%, reflecting a metro economy still anchored in lower-wage production and food service work \u2014 the latter accounting for 10.5% of area employment. Statewide leisure and hospitality payrolls grew by 10,200 jobs year-over-year, a pace of seasonal hiring that appears to be competing directly with this metro's already-thin labor pool for front-of-house and back-of-house talent.", "implications": "Metro restaurant pay sits well below national levels across nearly every role \u2014 Line Cook advertised pay at $26,688 compares to a $37,421 national median \u2014 a gap that widens recruiting difficulty as statewide leisure and hospitality demand pulls from the same shallow candidate pool. Falling advertised pay for Crew, Line Cook, and Catering Manager roles locally, even as Shift Manager pay rises significantly, suggests operators are consolidating supervisory responsibility into fewer, better-paid positions. Consider reviewing shift-lead and assistant-manager pay structures for signs that labor cost control is shifting weight from entry-level hourly roles toward a smaller set of accountable supervisory positions.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Policy watch", "body": "Alabama's SB 171, which would raise the state minimum wage to $10/hour by January 2027, remains unpassed. A spring 2027 legislative push is plausible given momentum in neighboring states \u2014 operators should track whether this re-emerges before year-end budgeting cycles close."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide leisure and hospitality employment grew 10,200 jobs year-over-year while Anniston's labor force stayed flat near 49,000. Continued state-level hiring demand without local labor force growth could push advertised pay higher across entry-level roles into Q1."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Calhoun County's unemployment rate of 2.6% is notably tighter than the metro's 4.0% headline figure, suggesting pockets of acute labor scarcity within the MSA. Operators drawing staff from the county core may face different hiring conditions than those in outlying areas."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National restaurant operators report only 49% plan staffing increases in 2026, down 11 points year-over-year, alongside a documented pivot toward automation and efficiency. Watch whether local operators begin advertising fewer Crew and Server roles relative to supervisory positions over the next two months."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 24180.0, "metro_p50": 36472.0, "metro_p75": 40107.25, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 39211.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 33280.0, "metro_p50": 43646.0, "metro_p75": 54779.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 50076.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 19753.0, "metro_p50": 24267.0, "metro_p75": 27040.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 30066.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 23920.0, "metro_p50": 26688.0, "metro_p75": 27294.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 37421.4, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 44432.0, "metro_p50": 55652.4, "metro_p75": 60231.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 59724.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 20403.0, "metro_p50": 25827.8, "metro_p75": 26634.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 35024.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 26646.25, "metro_p50": 34528.0, "metro_p75": 37440.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 33024.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [{"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Anniston-Oxford MSA unemployment rate at 4.0% in August 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "Food preparation and serving roles are 10.5% of Anniston area employment"}, {"source_name": "Alabama Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Alabama leisure and hospitality sector gained 10,200 jobs year-over-year"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "BLS projects 12% growth in cook employment 2025-2035 vs 2% for waiters"}, {"source_name": "U.S. Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "DOL withdrew the 80/20 tipped wage rule in October 2026"}, {"source_name": "Alabama State Legislature", "source_url": null, "statement": "Alabama SB 171 would raise minimum wage to $10/hour by January 2027"}], "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": "November 2026", "files": {"html": "anniston-oxford-al-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "pdf": "anniston-oxford-al-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:17:57.062672+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/anniston-oxford-al-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/anniston-oxford-al-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}