{"schema_version": 1, "id": "parkersburg-marietta-vienna-wv-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 391, "label": "Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH MSA", "slug": "parkersburg-marietta-vienna-wv-oh-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T06:59:54.398794+00:00", "headline": "Parkersburg server pay climbs as back-of-house wages stall.", "headline_summary": "Metro server pay rose to $31,459 while Line Cook held flat at $30,160 and Crew fell to $24,960, even as national cook demand is projected to grow 12% through 2035 against 2% for servers.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Metro unemployment rate", "value": "4.00%", "context": "July 2026, vs 4.2% national rate"}, {"label": "WV leisure & hospitality wage", "value": "$447/week", "context": "Lowest of any WV industry sector"}, {"label": "WV labor force participation", "value": "53.8%", "context": "vs 61.8% national rate"}, {"label": "National restaurant turnover", "value": "~80%", "context": "Up from 72% pre-pandemic"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Server pay climbs while crew and line cook wages sit flat.", "body": "Metro server pay rose to a $31,459 median while Crew fell to $24,960 and Line Cook held at $30,160, a divergence that points to FOH retention spending outpacing BOH. Cooks are structurally harder to replace \u2014 BLS projects 12% national growth in cook demand through 2035 versus 2% for servers \u2014 making the current pay gap a risk."}, {"headline": "80/20 rule repeal changes the tipped-wage math and leaves the labor shortage untouched.", "body": "DOL's October withdrawal lets operators pay the $2.13 federal tipped cash wage for side work without the old 20% cap, reducing direct wage liability for cleaning and stocking duties. West Virginia's $2.62 tipped cash wage already sits above the federal floor, so the practical savings here are modest, but the signal matters for any multi-state operator benchmarking tipped compensation across footprints."}, {"headline": "Crew pay decline looks like a hiring-pool story.", "body": "Metro Crew pay fell while leisure and hospitality still added 200 jobs statewide in September, a combination consistent with a shallow entry-level applicant pool alongside steady demand. Labor force participation stuck at 53.8% statewide limits how much pay movement alone can solve the staffing gap."}, {"headline": "Assistant Manager pay softening may reflect a thinning management bench.", "body": "Metro Assistant Restaurant Manager pay moved down to $35,360, well below the $39,211 national median, even as General Manager pay held stable at $52,213. Widening management-tier pay compression may make promotion-from-within a harder sell than external hiring for mid-level roles."}], "local_conditions": "Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna metro unemployment held at 4.00% through July, with Wood County at 3.9%, tracking slightly below national levels but masking a shrinking labor pool as West Virginia's labor force participation rate remains stuck at 53.8% against 61.8% nationally. West Virginia's leisure and hospitality sector still posts the lowest average weekly wage of any industry statewide at $447, even as the sector added 200 jobs in September, a combination that keeps pressure on operators competing for a thin pool of entry-level and front-of-house candidates.", "implications": "Flat statewide minimum wage at $8.75 and a $2.62 tipped cash wage give Parkersburg operators room on paper, but the federal DOL's October withdrawal of the 80/20 rule creates real opportunity to reduce direct wage exposure on side work without raising base pay \u2014 a lever most national chains will adopt faster than independents. Metro server pay moving up against flat crew and line cook rates suggests operators are reallocating budget toward guest-facing roles while back-of-house compensation lags a tightening cook labor market; current conditions suggest reviewing whether BOH pay structures reflect BLS's projected 12% cook employment growth through 2035 before turnover costs force the correction.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Policy watch", "body": "West Virginia's proposed bill to raise minimum wage to $11/hour starting January 2027 remains pending; passage would compress the gap between Parkersburg's current $8.75 floor and neighboring state rates, raising entry-level labor costs across the board."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Statewide quit rates remain elevated \u2014 19,000 quits against 7,000 layoffs in the most recent state data \u2014 a ratio that typically hits restaurant FOH roles hardest. Watch whether Parkersburg server and crew turnover tracks the statewide pattern into the holiday staffing push."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Wood County Economic Development's Community Bank headquarters and Camden Clark North Tower expansion could pull entry-level and skilled labor away from hospitality employers as construction and professional-services hiring ramps locally."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "National restaurant turnover near 80% and 70% of operators reporting difficult-to-fill openings suggest Parkersburg operators should expect seasonal holiday staffing to be harder to fill than usual; monitor local job ad volume, a signal of hiring demand where one ad often covers several openings, for early signs of intensifying competition."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 22544.0, "metro_p50": 35360.0, "metro_p75": 38500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 39211.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 37440.0, "metro_p50": 50405.4, "metro_p75": 50729.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 50076.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 23402.5, "metro_p50": 24960.0, "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": 26149.5, "metro_p50": 30160.0, "metro_p75": 31571.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 37421.4, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 48495.0, "metro_p50": 52212.8, "metro_p75": 56157.0, "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": 25854.5, "metro_p50": 31459.2, "metro_p75": 33906.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 35024.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 26969.0, "metro_p50": 30098.0, "metro_p75": 31839.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "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": "Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna MSA unemployment rate at 4.00% in July 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "WV leisure and hospitality average weekly wage of $447, lowest of all sectors"}, {"source_name": "U.S. Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "DOL withdrew the 80/20 tipped wage rule in October 2026"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "BLS projects cooks to grow 12% (2025-2035) versus 2% for waiters"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "West Virginia labor force participation rate at 53.8% vs 61.8% national"}, {"source_name": "National Restaurant Association", "source_url": null, "statement": "Restaurant turnover near 80% annually, up from 72% pre-pandemic"}], "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": "parkersburg-marietta-vienna-wv-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "pdf": "parkersburg-marietta-vienna-wv-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:28:04.644341+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/parkersburg-marietta-vienna-wv-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/parkersburg-marietta-vienna-wv-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}