{"schema_version": 1, "id": "wenatchee-wa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 534, "label": "Wenatchee, WA MSA", "slug": "wenatchee-wa-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T07:17:51.118689+00:00", "headline": "Wenatchee restaurant pay climbs as flat wage floor looms.", "headline_summary": "Wenatchee Restaurant Manager pay has climbed to a $75,131 median \u2014 26% above the $59,724 national figure \u2014 just as Washington's no-tip-credit minimum wage rises to $17.73 on January 1.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Chelan County unemployment", "value": "3.0%", "context": "July 2026, down from 3.6% in June"}, {"label": "WA minimum wage, Jan 2027", "value": "$17.73/hr", "context": "Up 3.5% from $17.13; no tip credit applies"}, {"label": "Local GM advertised pay premium", "value": "+26%", "context": "$75,131 metro vs $59,724 national median"}, {"label": "Food & Hospitality WARN filings (WA, YTD)", "value": "4,798 workers", "context": "41 notices statewide, tracked alongside agriculture losses"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Local GM pay is pulling away from the national market.", "body": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager advertised pay rose significantly to a $75,131 metro median against a stable $59,724 national figure \u2014 a 26-point premium that appears to reflect scarcity of management talent competing against Confluence Health and agricultural employers for the same experienced labor pool."}, {"headline": "Flat tip credit removes a traditional cost-management lever.", "body": "Washington's ban on counting tips toward minimum wage means the January increase to $17.73 hits servers and cooks identically, unlike states using the newly loosened federal 80/20 tipped-wage rule to manage side-work costs. Operators here cannot offset the increase by restructuring tipped-role duties the way multi-state chains elsewhere now can."}, {"headline": "Catering Manager wage growth may signal a banquet and event pivot.", "body": "Catering Manager advertised pay rose significantly to $54,779 locally while the national figure declined moderately, a divergence that is consistent with Wenatchee operators building higher-margin event and group business to offset seasonal volatility in core dine-in traffic."}, {"headline": "Crew-level pay gains outpace the national baseline.", "body": "Crew advertised pay rose moderately to $36,535 against a stable $30,066 nationally, a gap that tracks with Chelan County's tight entry-level labor market during peak agricultural and tourism season and may persist into winter if seasonal workers exit the area."}], "local_conditions": "Chelan County's unemployment rate sits near 3.0% following the summer agricultural and tourism peak, while the broader Wenatchee metro posted the highest unemployment rate among small metro areas nationally as recently as May \u2014 a seasonal swing that creates sharp staffing volatility for restaurant operators tied to fruit harvest and tourism cycles. Washington's statewide minimum wage climbs to $17.73 on January 1, 2027, and because the state bars tip credits entirely, that increase lands on front-of-house and back-of-house labor costs equally, compounding a national environment where 33% of operators already report labor costs rising 6-14% year to date.", "implications": "Metro restaurant pay data shows Restaurant Manager/General Manager advertised wages up significantly to $75,131 \u2014 nearly 26% above the national median of $59,724 \u2014 a gap consistent with a metro competing against seasonal agricultural and tourism labor demand for a thin pool of experienced operators. Washington's flat minimum-wage structure removes the usual lever of widening the tipped-to-full-wage spread during slow season, meaning labor-cost-as-revenue-share will track the full minimum wage increase regardless of FOH/BOH mix; current conditions suggest reviewing scheduling and cross-training strategies now, before the January 1 wage floor increase compresses margins further during the post-holiday slow season.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected policy shift", "body": "Washington's minimum wage rises to $17.73 on January 1, 2027. Operators should model labor-cost-as-revenue-share under the new floor now, since the state's no-tip-credit rule applies the increase uniformly across FOH and BOH roles."}, {"category": "Seasonal volatility watch", "body": "Chelan County's unemployment rate swung from 3.0% in July toward typical winter increases as agricultural work winds down; watch whether seasonal workers re-enter the restaurant labor pool or leave the metro, shaping January-February staffing availability."}, {"category": "Compliance exposure", "body": "King County's new requirement for labor-violation placards in food establishments, effective August 2026, raises reputational stakes for wage-and-hour compliance; Sophon's active L&I wage-theft investigation signals enforcement attention operators statewide should track."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Food & Hospitality accounts for 41 WARN notices and 4,798 affected workers statewide year-to-date, concentrated alongside agriculture and food production layoffs. Monitor whether any regional processing or hospitality closures near Wenatchee release workers into the local frontline labor pool."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38890.0, "metro_p50": 46800.0, "metro_p75": 55000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 39211.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 38219.0, "metro_p50": 54779.0, "metro_p75": 56171.5, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 50076.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 30389.0, "metro_p50": 36535.0, "metro_p75": 38220.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 30066.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 34653.0, "metro_p50": 40560.0, "metro_p75": 43680.0, "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": 54514.25, "metro_p50": 75131.2, "metro_p75": 85000.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 59724.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33956.75, "metro_p50": 38165.0, "metro_p75": 39271.25, "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": 33333.75, "metro_p50": 39362.0, "metro_p75": 41816.5, "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": "Washington Employment Security Department", "source_url": null, "statement": "Chelan County unemployment rate fell to 3.0% in July 2026"}, {"source_name": "Washington Department of Labor & Industries", "source_url": null, "statement": "Washington minimum wage rises to $17.73 on January 1, 2027"}, {"source_name": "Washington Restaurant Labor Market Research Notes", "source_url": null, "statement": "Washington bars counting tips toward minimum wage"}, {"source_name": "King County", "source_url": null, "statement": "King County requires labor violation placards in food establishments from August 2026"}, {"source_name": "Washington WARN Act Tracker", "source_url": null, "statement": "Food & Hospitality sector WARN filings total 4,798 workers year-to-date"}, {"source_name": "U.S. Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "Federal 80/20 tipped-wage rule withdrawn by DOL in October 2026"}], "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": "wenatchee-wa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "pdf": "wenatchee-wa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:32:18.192404+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wenatchee-wa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wenatchee-wa-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}