{"schema_version": 1, "id": "brunswick-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 90, "label": "Brunswick, GA MSA", "slug": "brunswick-ga-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:28:28.981851+00:00", "headline": "Brunswick servers gain ground as manager and cook pay soften.", "headline_summary": "Metro server pay rose significantly to $32,815 even as Assistant Manager pay fell to $33,903 and Line Cook pay dropped to $34,320, against a backdrop of 2.7% county unemployment.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Glynn County unemployment", "value": "2.7%", "context": "vs 3.2% Georgia, 4.1% national"}, {"label": "Server pay (metro)", "value": "$32,815", "context": "Up significantly vs national $34,915"}, {"label": "National restaurant job growth", "value": "+59,200 jobs (Aug)", "context": "Largest monthly gain since Jan 2023"}, {"label": "Georgia tipped minimum wage", "value": "$2.13/hr + credit", "context": "Unchanged since 2009; FL hits $15.00 Sept 30"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Server pay is rising while manager pay is falling \u2014 a rebalancing, not a raise.", "body": "Metro server pay climbed significantly to $32,815 even as Assistant Restaurant Manager pay dropped to $33,903, nearly closing the gap between hourly front-of-house and salaried management roles. This compression may reflect operators redirecting labor spend toward customer-facing retention while holding the line on management overhead."}, {"headline": "Line cook pay is softening against a historically tight local labor market.", "body": "Metro line cook pay fell moderately to $34,320, below the $36,702 national median, even with county unemployment near 2.7%. Falling advertised pay in a tight market may signal operators leaning harder on non-wage retention tools \u2014 scheduling, tips-pooling, earned wage access \u2014 rather than base rate increases to hold back-of-house staff."}, {"headline": "Georgia's frozen minimum wage is becoming a regional cost advantage, not just a policy footnote.", "body": "Florida's minimum wage reaches $15.00 on September 30 while Georgia's tipped floor stays at $2.13 cash plus tip credit, unchanged since 2009. Brunswick operators near the Florida border should watch whether this widening gap pulls border-adjacent workers south, or instead reinforces Georgia's cost edge for total labor spend as a share of revenue."}, {"headline": "National retention gains may not translate locally given Brunswick's tighter labor pool.", "body": "National restaurant quits fell from 685,000 to 503,000 and job openings dropped 27% since January, easing turnover pressure broadly. Glynn County's 2.7% unemployment rate suggests local operators may still face above-average turnover exposure even as the national picture stabilizes."}], "local_conditions": "Glynn County's unemployment rate held near 2.7% in July, among the tightest labor markets in Georgia and well below the state's already-low 3.2% and the national 4.1%, leaving Brunswick restaurants competing for workers against healthcare, port logistics, and retail employers with comparable urgency. National restaurant hiring surged by 59,200 jobs in August \u2014 the sector's strongest month since January 2023 \u2014 even as nearly half of operators report softer traffic, suggesting Brunswick operators are staffing up for seasonal demand rather than expansion.", "implications": "Georgia's frozen $7.25 minimum wage and $2.13 tipped floor keep front-of-house base labor costs structurally lower than in Florida, where the minimum reaches $15.00 on September 30, giving Brunswick operators a regional cost advantage but also exposure if border-adjacent talent migrates toward higher-paying Florida coastal markets. Server pay locally is up significantly (metro median $32,815) while Assistant Manager and Line Cook pay have both softened, indicating operators are funding front-of-house retention through tips and base pay while compressing management and back-of-house cost lines. Consider reviewing whether back-of-house pay compression is creating a retention gap relative to front-of-house gains, particularly as tight county-wide unemployment gives cooks and kitchen staff more outside options.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Policy watch", "body": "Florida's $15.00 minimum wage takes effect September 30, directly raising front-of-house costs just south of the Georgia line. Watch whether Brunswick-area operators see any shift in cross-border applicant flow or wage expectations from workers with Florida experience."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Local line cook and assistant manager pay have both softened even as county unemployment sits near multi-year lows. If this divergence persists, it may point to a back-of-house and management retention risk building beneath a headline-tight labor market."}, {"category": "Seasonal transition", "body": "August's national restaurant hiring surge coincides with the seasonal shift as students return to school, typically tightening part-time and shift-based staffing pools. Coastal Georgia's tourism-driven seasonal patterns make October staffing levels worth tracking closely against September advertised pay."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Full-service restaurants remain 3.6% below pre-pandemic staffing levels nationally, while QSR and casual segments have more flexibility. Track whether Brunswick's dine-in establishments are absorbing disproportionate recruitment pressure relative to quick-service competitors in the same labor pool."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 27982.0, "metro_p50": 33903.0, "metro_p75": 39541.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "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": 24960.0, "metro_p50": 27030.8, "metro_p75": 28080.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 29791.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 28547.0, "metro_p50": 34320.0, "metro_p75": 37440.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 36702.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 53405.0, "metro_p50": 59587.0, "metro_p75": 65446.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 59762.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25760.0, "metro_p50": 32815.2, "metro_p75": 34320.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 34915.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 26210.0, "metro_p50": 31200.0, "metro_p75": 32240.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "brunswick-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "pdf": "brunswick-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:33:23.895687+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/brunswick-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/brunswick-ga-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}