Brought to you by:
Powered by wagescape.com
Labor Market Pulse
Billings, MT Metro Edition
Focus: RESTAURANT
Billings pays up for managers while entry wages soften.
2.9%
Billings MSA unemployment rate
vs 3.2% Montana, 4.1% national (Aug 2026)
$1,285
Yellowstone County avg weekly wage
up 4.2% YoY, Q1 2026
$568
MT leisure/hospitality avg weekly wage
lowest of any MT sector, vs $1,559 construction
1.2%
MT accommodation/food services growth
down from 2.1% prior period, cited to shortages
This Month's Takeaways
Management pay is pulling away from the national trend.
Billings GM/Restaurant Manager pay sits at $70,000, up significantly and well above the $59,618 national median, which is itself declining. That divergence suggests local operators are treating management retention as the binding constraint on labor cost control, not hourly staffing.
Crew pay softening could be a false signal of slack.
Crew advertised pay fell moderately to $32,240 even as the metro unemployment rate sits near a historic low of 2.9%. Falling entry-level pay in a genuinely tight labor market is more consistent with employers pulling back postings than with easing competition for workers — worth testing against actual time-to-fill data before assuming hiring has gotten easier.
No-tip-credit policy keeps compressing the FOH/BOH wage gap.
Montana's requirement that tipped employees receive the full $10.85 minimum, combined with Server pay rising moderately to $30,921, means the traditional discount on front-of-house base wages has largely disappeared. Operators benchmarking server compensation against tip-credit states elsewhere in the country are likely underestimating true Montana labor cost as a share of revenue.
Statewide hospitality wage floor still trails every other sector.
Leisure/hospitality's $568 average weekly wage compares to $1,559 for construction statewide, a gap that predates this month but keeps widening as construction and healthcare post faster wage growth. Current conditions suggest total rewards packages, not just base pay, may be the more effective lever for closing this recruitment gap.
Local Labor Conditions
Billings MSA unemployment held at 2.9% in August, well below the national 4.1% and even Montana's 3.2%, confirming a labor pool that remains structurally tight for restaurant operators competing against healthcare and construction for hourly workers. Yellowstone County's average weekly wage rose 4.2% year-over-year to $1,285, yet leisure/hospitality's statewide average weekly wage of $568 remains the lowest of any sector, widening the gap operators must close to compete for front-of-house and back-of-house talent.
Leadership & Talent Implications
Montana's no-tip-credit policy already forces servers to be paid the full $10.85 minimum, and the metro's advertised Server pay of $30,921 — up moderately year-over-year — suggests operators are layering additional wage pressure on top of that floor rather than relying on tips to close the gap. With Assistant Restaurant Manager and GM/Restaurant Manager pay both up significantly locally ($46,068 and $70,000 respectively, against national medians moving down or flat), Billings operators appear to be bidding aggressively for supervisory talent even as entry-level Crew pay has softened. Consider reviewing whether management-tier pay increases are outpacing the labor budget's capacity to also fund FOH/BOH retention, since a market that pays up for supervisors while entry wages soften risks a thinner bench of promotable internal talent.
