{"schema_version": 1, "id": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area/restaurant-industry/2026-10", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 527, "label": "WY NONMETROPOLITAN AREA", "slug": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-10", "public_after": "2026-10-01", "frozen_at": "2026-11-03T07:15:54.242327+00:00", "headline": "Wyoming restaurant pay slips even as labor market stays tight.", "headline_summary": "Advertised Server and Line Cook pay fell this month in Wyoming's nonmetro market even as statewide unemployment held at 3.0%, well below the national 4.2% rate.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Wyoming nonmetro unemployment", "value": "3.0%", "context": "vs 4.2% national rate, September 2026"}, {"label": "Metro Server advertised pay", "value": "$32,004", "context": "down (moderate) vs stable national $35,024"}, {"label": "Metro Catering Manager pay", "value": "$70,000", "context": "up significantly vs declining $50,076 national"}, {"label": "Leisure/hospitality job growth", "value": "+1.8%", "context": "Wyoming's strongest sector, outpacing mining's -3.8%"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Advertised pay is falling locally while national rates hold firm.", "body": "Server, Line Cook, Crew, and Assistant Manager pay all moved down this month in this metro while national medians stayed flat, a gap that is hard to square with Wyoming's 3.0% unemployment rate. Operators cutting posted rates in a labor-scarce market may be trading near-term labor cost control for longer fill times."}, {"headline": "Catering Manager pay surge signals a bet on banquet and event revenue.", "body": "Metro Catering Manager pay jumped to a $70,000 median, well above the $50,076 national figure that is itself declining. This looks like a local strategy to staff up for group and event business, distinct from a broad compensation trend, and should be benchmarked against demand rather than treated as a signal for other roles."}, {"headline": "Tipped-wage deregulation creates new flexibility for front-of-house labor cost management.", "body": "DOL's October withdrawal of the 80/20 rule lets operators pay the $2.13 tipped cash wage for side work without the prior 20% threshold cap, a federal change that applies directly in Wyoming where the tip credit structure remains unchanged. This may ease labor cost pressure on slower shifts without requiring a base wage increase."}, {"headline": "Front-of-house scarcity outpaces back-of-house in projected openings.", "body": "Waiters and waitresses show 1,831 projected openings through 2026 versus 807 for first-line food-service supervisors, pointing to deeper churn risk in service roles than in kitchen management. Retention-focused scheduling or tip-pooling adjustments may address this more efficiently than across-the-board wage hikes."}], "local_conditions": "Wyoming's nonmetropolitan counties held at a 3.0% statewide unemployment rate in September, with leisure and hospitality posting the strongest job growth of any sector (up 1.8% year-over-year) even as mining continued to contract. Tight county-level labor markets \u2014 from 1.8% in Teton to 3.8% in Niobrara \u2014 mean restaurant operators across the state's rural geography are competing for the same shrinking applicant pool against higher-paying sectors like construction and energy.", "implications": "Advertised pay for Server, Line Cook, and Crew roles in this metro is trending down against a national backdrop of stable wages, a divergence that may suggest local operators are pulling back on posted rates even as statewide unemployment sits far below the national 4.2% rate \u2014 a combination that risks widening the gap between advertised pay and what candidates can earn in Wyoming's $29,520 average leisure/hospitality wage versus other sectors. Front-of-house roles face the tightest scarcity, with waiters and waitresses projecting more than double the openings of supervisory food-service roles through 2026, suggesting retention investment may deliver more return than new-hire pay increases alone. Consider reviewing whether declining advertised Server and Line Cook rates reflect deliberate cost management or lagging adjustment to a labor market still running near full employment.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected data release", "body": "Wyoming's October unemployment figures publish November 23 \u2014 watch whether the 3.0% rate holds or tightens further, which would sharpen competition for entry-level restaurant labor heading into the holiday season."}, {"category": "Policy ripple effect", "body": "DOL's 80/20 rule withdrawal is new as of October; watch whether Wyoming operators begin reallocating front-of-house side work without raising posted wage rates, and whether this affects advertised Server pay trends next month."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Declining advertised pay for Server and Line Cook roles against a backdrop of sub-2% county unemployment in places like Teton and Crook may create fill-time and turnover strain through the winter tourism season."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Catering Manager's sharp local pay increase is worth tracking into Q1 to see if it reflects a durable staffing strategy around event and group business, measured by job ads, which track demand and often cover several openings each, or a one-off adjustment tied to a handful of ads."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 27042.5, "metro_p50": 35528.4, "metro_p75": 38651.0, "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": "metro", "metro_p25": 68138.25, "metro_p50": 70000.0, "metro_p75": 70000.0, "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": 24953.5, "metro_p50": 28340.0, "metro_p75": 31200.0, "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": 29120.0, "metro_p50": 33699.6, "metro_p75": 38184.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 37421.4, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 50675.0, "metro_p50": 58943.8, "metro_p75": 66730.0, "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": 26926.0, "metro_p50": 32004.0, "metro_p75": 35019.5, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 35024.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25009.0, "metro_p50": 32240.0, "metro_p75": 33576.0, "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": "Wyoming Department of Workforce Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Wyoming nonmetro unemployment held at 3.0% in September 2026"}, {"source_name": "Wyoming Division of Economic Analysis", "source_url": null, "statement": "Leisure and hospitality led Wyoming job growth, up 1.8%"}, {"source_name": "U.S. Department of Labor", "source_url": null, "statement": "DOL withdrew the 80/20 rule for tipped wage calculations in October 2026"}, {"source_name": "Wyoming Department of Workforce Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Waiters/waitresses project 1,831 openings vs 807 for food-service supervisors"}, {"source_name": "Bureau of Labor Statistics", "source_url": null, "statement": "National unemployment rate at 4.2% (September) / 4.1% (October)"}, {"source_name": "Wyoming Department of Workforce Services", "source_url": null, "statement": "Wyoming leisure/hospitality average annual wage of $29,520"}], "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": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "pdf": "wy-nonmetropolitan-area/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-11-03T08:32:41.729543+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wy-nonmetropolitan-area/restaurant-industry/2026-10.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/wy-nonmetropolitan-area/restaurant-industry/2026-10.pdf"}