What you will learn
Learn how sales per labor hour helps restaurant owners measure productivity, benchmark performance, optimize staffing, and improve labor efficiency profitably.
What Is a Good Sales Per Labor Hour for Restaurants?
Sales Per Labor Hour Explained
Sales Per Labor Hour (SPLH) is a restaurant labor productivity metric that shows how much sales revenue your restaurant generates for every hour of employee labor worked. It helps restaurant owners understand whether staffing levels are aligned with sales activity.
The basic idea is simple - if your restaurant generates more sales using the same number of labor hours, your SPLH increases. If labor hours increase while sales remain flat or decline, your SPLH decreases.
For example, suppose your restaurant generates $8,000 in sales during a day and employees work a combined 200 labor hours. Your Sales Per Labor Hour would be -
$8,000 / 200 = $40 SPLH
This means the restaurant generated $40 in sales for every labor hour worked.
SPLH is useful because labor costs are one of the largest controllable expenses in restaurant operations. Instead of looking only at total payroll spending, restaurant owners can use SPLH to evaluate how efficiently scheduled labor supports revenue.
The metric can also be tracked by day, shift, department, or daypart. For example, lunch may generate a much higher SPLH than a slower afternoon period. Identifying these differences can help owners make better scheduling decisions.
However, SPLH should not be viewed as a goal to maximize at all costs. Scheduling too few employees may increase SPLH temporarily but can lead to slower service, employee burnout, order mistakes, and lost sales. The goal is to maintain a level of labor productivity that supports both profitability and a consistent guest experience.
Calculate Sales Per Labor Hour
Calculating Sales Per Labor Hour (SPLH) requires two numbers - your restaurant's total sales and the total number of labor hours worked during the same period.
Use this formula -
Sales Per Labor Hour = Total Sales / Total Labor Hours
For example, suppose your restaurant generates $12,000 in sales during one day and employees work a combined 300 labor hours.
$12,000 / 300 = $40 SPLH
Your restaurant generated $40 in sales for every labor hour worked.
The most important part of the calculation is making sure the sales period and labor-hour period match. If you are measuring SPLH for one day, use only that day's sales and labor hours. The same rule applies when calculating the metric for a week, month, shift, or daypart.
Restaurant owners should also define which labor hours are included. Depending on how you manage your operation, total labor hours may include hourly kitchen employees, servers, bartenders, hosts, managers, dishwashers, and other employees who worked during the measurement period. Using the same method every time makes comparisons more reliable.
You can also calculate SPLH for individual shifts. For example, if dinner generates $6,000 in sales with 120 labor hours, the dinner SPLH is -
$6,000 / 120 = $50 SPLH
If lunch generates $3,000 with 100 labor hours, lunch SPLH is only $30.
Tracking these differences helps restaurant owners see when staffing is producing the most revenue and where labor hours may need closer review.
What Is a Good Sales Per Labor Hour?
There is no single Sales Per Labor Hour (SPLH) number that qualifies as "good" for every restaurant. The right target depends on your restaurant type, service model, average check, operating hours, location, wage rates, and the amount of labor required to serve each customer.
As a general reference, a 2026 guide from 7shifts provides the following reasonable SPLH ranges by restaurant type -
1. Full-service restaurants. $50-$80 per labor hour
2. Fast-casual restaurants. $80-$120 per labor hour
3. Quick-service restaurants. $100-$150+ per labor hour
These figures should be treated as reference points rather than universal targets. A full-service restaurant generally requires more servers, hosts, bussers, cooks, and support employees per customer, which can produce a lower SPLH. A quick-service restaurant can often process more transactions with fewer labor hours, allowing it to generate a higher SPLH.
For example, suppose your full-service restaurant generates $60 SPLH. Based on the ranges above, that result may be reasonable. However, a quick-service operation producing the same $60 SPLH could warrant a closer look at staffing levels, sales volume, or operational efficiency.
Restaurant owners should therefore establish their own baseline. Review several weeks or months of historical SPLH and compare similar periods, such as Tuesday lunch against other Tuesday lunch shifts rather than against Saturday dinner.
Also remember that higher SPLH is not automatically better. A sudden increase may indicate improved productivity, but it can also mean your restaurant is understaffed. Employees may be handling more customers than they can comfortably serve, potentially affecting speed, accuracy, and the guest experience.
A good SPLH is ultimately one that supports your labor budget while giving employees enough capacity to provide consistent service. The most useful benchmark is your restaurant's own performance over time, supported by comparisons with similar restaurant concepts.
Compare SPLH by Restaurant Type
Sales Per Labor Hour can vary significantly depending on the restaurant's service model. A restaurant that relies heavily on table service will usually require more labor than a concept built around counter service, self-service, or high transaction volume.
1. Quick-service restaurants often have higher SPLH because they are designed to serve a large number of customers quickly with relatively lean staffing. Standardized menus, limited table service, kiosks, drive-thrus, and automated ordering can also help employees process more sales per hour.
2. Fast-casual restaurants may also generate relatively strong SPLH because customers typically order at a counter while still paying higher average checks than many traditional quick-service concepts. However, labor requirements can increase when restaurants offer customized meals, large menus, delivery, or extensive food preparation.
3. Full-service restaurants generally operate with lower SPLH because they require more front-of-house labor. Servers, hosts, bussers, bartenders, food runners, and other employees may all contribute to the guest experience. Longer dining times can also limit how many customers are served during each hour.
4. Cafes and coffee shops can produce very different SPLH results throughout the day. A busy morning rush may generate high sales with a relatively small team, while slower afternoon hours may reduce labor productivity.
5. Bars and high-volume beverage concepts can potentially generate higher SPLH during peak periods because beverage preparation can be relatively fast and average checks may rise quickly during busy hours.
For this reason, restaurant owners should avoid comparing SPLH across completely different restaurant formats. A better approach is to compare your restaurant against similar concepts and, more importantly, against your own historical performance.
Track Sales Per Labor Hour by Shift and Daypart
A restaurant-wide Sales Per Labor Hour number can be useful, but it may hide major differences between individual shifts and dayparts. Tracking SPLH throughout the day gives restaurant owners a clearer view of when labor is being used efficiently and when staffing may be too high for the amount of revenue generated.
Start by dividing the day into operating periods such as breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, and late night. Then calculate SPLH for each period using the same formula -
Sales Per Labor Hour = Sales During the Period / Labor Hours Worked
For example, a restaurant might produce -
1. Lunch. $4,500 in sales / 90 labor hours = $50 SPLH
2. Afternoon. $1,200 in sales / 60 labor hours = $20 SPLH
3. Dinner. $8,000 in sales / 125 labor hours = $64 SPLH
The restaurant's overall daily SPLH may appear reasonable, but the breakdown shows that afternoon labor productivity is significantly lower than lunch or dinner.
Restaurant owners can use this information to review whether staffing levels match customer demand. A consistently low SPLH during certain hours may indicate that too many employees are scheduled, shifts overlap for too long, employees arrive too early, or sales forecasts are inaccurate.
Comparisons should also be made across similar days. Friday dinner should generally be compared with previous Friday dinner shifts rather than a slower Monday afternoon.
Tracking SPLH over several weeks can reveal recurring patterns and help managers build schedules around actual demand. Rather than cutting labor based on one slow shift, look for consistent trends.
The objective is to align employee hours with expected sales while maintaining enough coverage for food preparation, customer service, cleaning, and other operational responsibilities.
Causes of Low Sales Per Labor Hour
A low Sales Per Labor Hour means your restaurant is generating less revenue for each hour of labor worked. This does not automatically mean employees are underperforming. In many cases, the issue comes from how labor is scheduled, how accurately sales are forecast, or how efficiently the restaurant operates.
One common cause is overstaffing during slow periods. If customer traffic drops but the same number of employees remain scheduled, labor hours increase faster than sales. Even a few unnecessary labor hours repeated across multiple shifts can reduce SPLH over time.
Another factor is inaccurate sales forecasting. Scheduling employees based on expected demand that never materializes can leave too much labor on the floor. Restaurant owners should compare forecasted sales with actual sales and adjust future schedules accordingly.
Low SPLH can also result from poor shift timing. Employees who clock in too early, stay too late, or overlap unnecessarily can add labor hours without producing additional revenue.
Operational inefficiencies can further reduce productivity. Slow kitchen workflows, unclear employee responsibilities, equipment problems, excessive prep time, or poorly designed workstations may require more labor to complete the same amount of work.
Finally, the problem may be on the sales side. Lower guest counts, weak average checks, seasonal slowdowns, or declining order volume can reduce SPLH even when staffing remains unchanged.
Restaurant owners should therefore review sales, labor hours, schedules, and operational performance together. Identifying the root cause of a low SPLH makes it easier to improve labor productivity without making staffing cuts that could negatively affect service.
Improve Sales Per Labor Hour
Improving Sales Per Labor Hour does not simply mean scheduling fewer employees. Cutting labor too aggressively can slow service, increase mistakes, and put additional pressure on employees. A better approach is to improve how labor is scheduled and used while also finding ways to increase sales.
Start with better sales forecasting. Review historical sales by day, shift, and daypart so schedules reflect expected demand. When staffing is closely aligned with customer traffic, restaurants can reduce unnecessary labor hours during slow periods without leaving peak shifts understaffed.
Cross-training employees can also improve labor productivity. Employees who can perform multiple roles give managers more flexibility during changing demand. For example, a team member who can help with both food preparation and order fulfillment may reduce the need to schedule separate employees for each task during slower periods.
Restaurant owners should also look for workflow bottlenecks. Poor workstation layouts, slow equipment, unclear responsibilities, and inefficient prep procedures can cause employees to spend more time completing routine tasks. Simplifying these processes can help the same team handle more orders.
Increasing sales is another way to improve SPLH. Strategies such as upselling, suggestive selling, improving average check size, promoting high-margin items, and increasing order volume can raise revenue without requiring the same percentage increase in labor hours.
Technology may also help. Online ordering, scheduling software, kitchen display systems, self-service kiosks, and automated reporting can reduce manual tasks and improve labor allocation.
Most importantly, monitor service metrics alongside SPLH. If labor productivity rises while ticket times, customer complaints, or employee overtime also increase, staffing may have been reduced too far.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between SPLH and labor cost percentage?
SPLH measures sales generated per labor hour, while labor cost percentage measures labor expenses as a percentage of sales. Tracking both provides a broader view of labor performance.
How can restaurants increase SPLH?
Restaurants can improve SPLH through better forecasting, smarter scheduling, employee cross-training, efficient workflows, higher average checks, upselling, and increased sales volume.
What causes Sales Per Labor Hour to decrease?
Common causes include overstaffing, declining sales, unnecessary shift overlaps, inaccurate forecasts, excessive prep hours, slow workflows, and weak customer traffic.
Why can two restaurants with similar sales have different SPLH?
They may use different numbers of labor hours. A restaurant generating $10,000 with 200 labor hours has a $50 SPLH, while one generating the same sales with 250 hours has a $40 SPLH.
