{"schema_version": 1, "id": "logan-ut-id-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 277, "label": "Logan, UT-ID MSA", "slug": "logan-ut-id-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:29:57.255700+00:00", "headline": "Logan kitchens get raises; management pay quietly retreats.", "headline_summary": "Line Cook advertised pay climbed to $32,344 in Logan while Restaurant Manager/GM pay fell to $52,500 \u2014 a wider discount to the $59,762 national figure than most roles show.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Cache County unemployment", "value": "2.7%", "context": "vs 4.1% national, 3.5% Utah statewide"}, {"label": "Restaurant Manager/GM advertised pay", "value": "$52,500", "context": "Down significantly vs $59,762 national median"}, {"label": "Utah leisure & hospitality job growth", "value": "+4,000 YoY", "context": "Against national restaurant payroll surge of 59,200 in August"}, {"label": "National restaurant job openings", "value": "673,000 (July)", "context": "Down 27% from 916,000 in January 2026"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Back-of-house pay is outrunning front-of-house in Logan.", "body": "Line Cook advertised pay rose significantly to $32,344 \u2014 above the $36,702 national median gap suggests locally \u2014 while Server pay fell to $28,922. Kitchen labor scarcity is forcing operators to bid up base wages precisely where Utah's frozen $7.25 floor offers no cushion."}, {"headline": "Management pay is falling even as the job gets harder.", "body": "Restaurant Manager/GM advertised pay dropped significantly to $52,500, a wider discount to the $59,762 national figure than most other roles show. Falling management pay alongside rising line-level pay may signal operators are compressing supervisory layers to fund retention where turnover bites hardest \u2014 the kitchen."}, {"headline": "Utah State's academic calendar is Logan's real staffing lever.", "body": "USU accounts for roughly 15% of the metro workforce, and Crabb's warning about a thinner secondary-hours pipeline points directly at student labor. Operators planning fall and winter semester scheduling should treat enrollment patterns, not just seasonal demand, as a staffing input."}, {"headline": "Crew and Shift Manager gains suggest a mid-tier retention play.", "body": "Both roles moved up moderately (Crew to $27,239, Shift Manager to $34,159) while Server and Assistant Manager pay declined. Advertised pay is concentrating around roles that bridge hourly staff and management \u2014 a plausible response to high front-line turnover without the cost of rebuilding full management benches."}], "local_conditions": "Cache County's 2.7% unemployment rate and Utah State University's role as anchor employer keep Logan's labor pool structurally tight, even as Utah DWS economist Ben Crabb flags a cooling secondary-hours and part-time market statewide that historically feeds restaurant staffing. National restaurant payrolls posted their largest one-month gain since January 2023 in August, yet Utah's leisure and hospitality sector added only 4,000 jobs year-over-year, suggesting Logan operators are competing for a shrinking pipeline of entry-level and student labor against a metro economy the Milken Institute just ranked 8th nationally among small cities.", "implications": "Divergent local pay signals \u2014 Line Cook up significantly to $32,344 while Restaurant Manager/GM pay fell to $52,500, well below the $59,762 national median \u2014 indicate operators are reallocating limited labor budgets toward back-of-house retention rather than management tiers, a defensible move given full-service staffing remains 203,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels nationally. With Utah's $7.25 minimum wage frozen since 2009 and SB 179 dead this session, wage competition rather than policy will keep driving labor cost as a share of revenue upward. Consider reviewing management compensation bands against the metro's falling advertised rates before assuming current GM pay is competitive enough to retain talent as student-driven turnover intensifies.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "USU's fall semester enrollment and course-schedule shifts typically reshape Logan's part-time labor supply by late September and October. Watch whether Crew and Server advertised pay continues rising as operators compete for the same shrinking student pool Crabb flagged statewide."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Management-tier pay (Assistant Manager, Restaurant Manager/GM) is falling locally even as national management pay softens only moderately. Sustained divergence over the next two months would suggest Logan-specific oversupply or a deliberate shift toward flatter management structures worth benchmarking against turnover data."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "Florida's minimum wage reaches $15.00 on September 30 and seven states now bar tip credit entirely \u2014 Utah shows no comparable movement, but multi-state operators should watch whether wage-floor divergence widens recruiting difficulty for any brand competing across state lines for transferable talent."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National restaurant job openings fell 27% from January to July and quits declined in tandem, easing turnover pressure industry-wide. Watch whether Logan's tight 2.7% county unemployment rate keeps local turnover elevated even as the national trend eases, which would justify retention spending over new hiring."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 24984.0, "metro_p50": 30588.0, "metro_p75": 36400.0, "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": 39520.0, "metro_p50": 46110.0, "metro_p75": 56176.0, "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": 27239.0, "metro_p75": 27617.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 29791.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 29120.0, "metro_p50": 32344.0, "metro_p75": 35360.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 36702.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 46875.0, "metro_p50": 52500.0, "metro_p75": 58101.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 59762.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 26000.0, "metro_p50": 28922.0, "metro_p75": 32240.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 34915.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 29662.0, "metro_p50": 34159.0, "metro_p75": 36140.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "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": "logan-ut-id-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "pdf": "logan-ut-id-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:34:41.171228+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/logan-ut-id-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/logan-ut-id-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}