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Target{{ totals ? percent(computation.normalizedInputs.target) : '—' }} Period{{ totals ? computation.normalizedInputs.period : '—' }}
Match the labor period. Exclude sales tax and employee tips; use sales after discounts and refunds.

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Every amount and hour must cover this same period. Changing this label does not rescale your figures.

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Use one currency for every amount. Changing currency does not convert your figures.

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Labor entry:
Use totals from payroll, or build the estimate from role groups.

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Role roster

Group only people with the same pay and hours. Open a role to edit it. Use role names, not employee names: the current inputs are stored in the page URL.

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Your effective rate on all entered wages and salaries. Include taxes and insurance here only once; the sample 10% is not a statutory rate.

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Fixed employer-paid benefits not already included in the percentage burden.

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Use your own operating target. Exact entry accepts 0.1–100%; the slider covers 10–60%.
%

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Additional labor costs for this period not included elsewhere. They stay unallocated in the ledger.

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Optional fully loaded cost of one adjustable hour. Leave 0 to omit the hours scenario. Salary and fixed costs may not change when hours change.

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Your target, two ways to compare
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The budget excess is equivalent to {{ totals.equivalent_hours.toLocaleString('en-US', { maximumFractionDigits: 2 }) }} hours at your {{ money(computation.normalizedInputs.marginal_rate) }}/hour scenario rate. This is an arithmetic comparison, not a recommended staffing cut.

The sales alternative holds labor cost constant. The budget alternative holds sales constant. Neither predicts service quality, demand or profit. Check coverage before changing a schedule.

Calculation method
Labor share = loaded labor ÷ net sales × 100
  1. {{ row.label }}{{ row.value }}
Assumptions and limits

Regular and overtime hours are separate; overtime entries contain full pay. Salaries are entered as period allocations. Percentage burden applies to gross payroll; benefits and other fixed costs remain unallocated. Amounts are estimates rounded only for display, not payroll settlement.

Use payroll records to verify overtime eligibility, tipped-worker rules, employer taxes and benefit costs. A salary label does not establish overtime exemption. These rules and exchange rates are not calculated.

Sources

Reviewed 8 September 2026. Example rates and targets are editable assumptions.

Chart unavailable. The labor ledger still contains all costs.

Role / costDepartmentRegular ({{ computation.normalizedInputs.currency }})Overtime ({{ computation.normalizedInputs.currency }})Salary ({{ computation.normalizedInputs.currency }})Burden ({{ computation.normalizedInputs.currency }})Loaded ({{ computation.normalizedInputs.currency }})Copy
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The same kitchen and service team can consume a larger share of revenue during a quiet week even when nobody's pay changes. Restaurant labor percentage compares the employer's labor cost with net sales for the same period. It helps explain how much sales revenue is committed to labor, but a change in the percentage can come from pay, staffing hours, sales, or a combination of them.

Before comparing percentages, distinguish the pay earned by staff from the broader cost carried by the employer.

Gross payroll
Pay assigned to the period, including regular wages, full pay for overtime hours, and allocated salaries.
Loaded labor cost
Gross payroll plus the employer costs included in the estimate, such as payroll taxes, insurance, benefits, and other labor expenses. A wages-only total and a loaded total do not measure the same spending.

Net sales should cover that same period and use a consistent definition. For this type of comparison, use sales after discounts and refunds, excluding sales tax and employee tips. Including money that is not restaurant sales makes labor appear to take a smaller share of revenue.

Timing can distort the comparison just as much as missing costs. A monthly salary payment does not all belong against one week's sales. Salary and benefit costs need an appropriate allocation to the dates being reviewed, even when their payment dates follow a different schedule. The same principle applies when comparing a proposed roster with forecast sales rather than reviewing completed payroll.

Overtime also needs a consistent treatment. Full overtime pay includes the entire amount paid for those hours, not only the extra premium. When regular pay excludes overtime hours, adding only the premium understates payroll. Counting the base pay for those hours in regular wages and then adding their full overtime pay counts that base pay twice.

A labor target is a planning choice, not a universal staffing rule. Comparisons are more useful when they cover similar operations, the same cost categories, and comparable periods. Employer costs should also appear only once, rather than both inside an estimated burden percentage and again as separate benefits.

Reducing paid hours may lower spending, but it does not establish that preparation and service will still be covered. Stronger sales can lower the percentage without reducing payroll at all. Neither a low labor percentage nor meeting a target proves profitability, because food, occupancy, and other operating costs still have to be paid.

How to Use This Tool:

Start with a payroll report or a proposed role roster for one sales period. The default figures are illustrative, and results update as you edit.

  1. Enter Net sales for the period and choose the matching Operating period and Currency. Period and currency choices label the figures; they do not convert amounts, rescale hours, or allocate salaries.
  2. Choose Quick totals for payroll amounts or Detailed roster to calculate pay by role group. The modes have separate entries, so switching to the roster does not turn the quick totals into roles.
    The calculation runs in your browser, but current inputs, including pay amounts and role names, are stored in the page address. Use role names rather than employee names, and treat a saved or shared address as containing those financial details.
  3. Fill the active labor inputs. In Quick totals, enter regular wages excluding all overtime pay, full overtime wages, and allocated salaries. In Detailed roster, group only people with the same pay and hours. Enter regular and overtime hours separately per person, with their actual hourly rates, or enter a period salary allocation per person.
  4. Add your Employer burden rate (%) and any Employer benefits for the period not covered by it. Use Other employer costs under Advanced for further labor expenses not included elsewhere. The starting 10% burden is an example, not a statutory rate.
  5. Set your Target labor share. Enter your own target; the accepted range is 0.1% to 100%. The starting 30% is a planning example, not an industry recommendation. For an optional hours comparison, enter the fully loaded cost of one adjustable hour in Hourly-change scenario rate; leave it at 0 to omit that comparison.
  6. Check Loaded labor for the period and the Labor ledger against the payroll and employer costs you intended to include.
    If Check labor inputs appears, correct the named field or open the named role to fix its input. Use 0 rather than a blank for unused numeric amounts. An empty roster needs at least one role; a saved roster that cannot be opened can be replaced with Restore sample roster. An invalid hourly-change rate omits only the hours scenario and leaves an otherwise valid labor estimate available.

Interpreting Results:

Loaded labor for the period includes the payroll and employer costs entered, not every expense of running the restaurant. In Cost composition, burden is a separate category. In the Labor ledger, it is already included in each payroll row's or role's loaded amount. Benefits + other remains Unallocated, so individual role totals do not include those fixed costs. If the chart is unavailable, the ledger still contains the costs.

The Labor plan compares your target in two different ways. Labor budget at your target holds sales fixed and shows the allowed labor spending. Sales needed at unchanged labor holds loaded labor fixed and shows the sales that would produce your target percentage. Additional sales needed is the remaining positive sales gap, not a forecast of attainable demand.

An hour-equivalent result translates budget excess using your chosen hourly-change rate. It does not identify which shifts can be changed or recommend a staffing cut. Salaries and fixed benefits may remain payable after hours change, while extra sales may require more labor. Before acting on either comparison, check the affected roles, service coverage, and costs that would actually change.

Technical Details:

Loaded labor combines pay that belongs to the period with the employer costs assigned to that pay. This operating-cost planning model uses arithmetic sums and percentage comparisons. A single user-selected burden percentage applies to all entered wages and salaries. Separately entered benefits and other employer costs are added afterward, without another burden charge.

Gross payroll and loaded labor

Add the three payroll components, apply burden to their sum, and add the remaining employer costs. For positive net sales, dividing loaded labor by sales gives the labor share.

G = R+O+A B = G×b100 L = G+B+F+C P = LS×100
Symbol Meaning Unit
R, O, A Regular wages, full overtime pay, and allocated salaries Currency for the period
G, B, L Gross payroll, employer burden cost, and loaded labor Currency for the period
F, C Employer benefits and other employer costs not already included Currency for the period
S Net sales for the same period Currency for the period
b, t Entered employer burden rate and target labor share Percent; enter 30 for 30%
P Loaded labor as a share of net sales Percent
m Optional hourly-change scenario rate Currency per hour

When net sales are 0, labor percentage is undefined, even when labor cost is also 0. The absolute costs remain available and the target budget is 0. A period with negative net sales is outside the accepted input range.

Payroll from role groups

Quick totals supply the regular, overtime, and salary amounts directly. A detailed roster constructs those amounts from people, hours, and pay. Each hourly group uses two separate hour-and-rate products; a salary group uses the salary allocation instead.

Gi = ni× ( hi×ri + qi×ui ) hourly group Gi = ni×ai salary group G = ∑iGi all groups

For group i, n is the number of people. h and q are regular and overtime hours per person for the period, while r and u are their regular and full overtime pay rates per hour. a is the period salary allocation per person. Multiplying hours by currency per hour produces a pay amount; multiplying again by the people count produces the group amount.

No overtime threshold or automatic rate multiplier is applied. The entered overtime hours and full rate determine overtime pay. Salary groups do not use hourly fields, and hourly groups do not use salary allocations. Every group's gross payroll receives the same burden percentage; its loaded ledger amount is gross payroll plus that burden. Department labels do not change the arithmetic.

Target budget and sales alternatives

At fixed sales, the target percentage defines a labor budget. Let K be that budget, Δ the difference between loaded labor and budget, and E the positive budget excess.

K = S×t100 Δ = L−K E = max(0,Δ)

The budget label uses the unrounded difference. Exact equality belongs to zero headroom, not to an above-target band.

Condition Displayed label Amount before display rounding
Δ > 0 Above target budget Δ
Δ = 0 Budget headroom 0
Δ < 0 Budget headroom −Δ

At fixed loaded labor, required sales reverse the percentage calculation. Let U be Additional sales needed. Any negative gap is replaced with 0, so meeting or exceeding the required sales never produces a negative additional-sales amount.

Sneeded = Lt/100 U = max(0,Sneeded−S)

When the optional hourly-change rate m is positive, the budget excess becomes an equivalent number of hours H. This rate is entered separately; it is not inferred from an average wage or the roster.

H=Em form>0

A valid positive rate produces 0 equivalent hours when there is no budget excess. A rate of 0, a blank, or an invalid rate omits the hours comparison without changing the other labor calculations.

Overtime's share of payroll

The percentage beside Full overtime pay uses gross payroll as its denominator. It is neither the percentage of hours worked as overtime nor the overtime premium's share of loaded labor.

Povertime =OG×100 forG>0

When gross payroll is 0, the displayed overtime share is 0%. Separately entered benefits or other employer costs can still make loaded labor positive.

Input bounds and precision

The following limits are inclusive and apply to each input, not to the combined total.

Input Minimum Maximum Unit or condition
Net sales, quick payroll amounts, benefits, and other employer costs 0 1,000,000,000 Selected currency for the period
Employer burden rate 0 100 Percent
Target labor share 0.1 100 Percent; 0 is not allowed
People in a role group 1 1,000 Whole people, not fractional headcounts
Regular or overtime hours per person 0 1,000 Hours for the period, separately for each hour type
Regular pay rate, full overtime rate, and hourly-change scenario rate 0 100,000 Selected currency per hour
Salary allocation per person 0 10,000,000 Selected currency for the period

A detailed roster contains 1 to 20 role groups, each with a nonblank name of up to 60 characters and a listed department and pay basis. Pay fields belonging to the inactive entry mode or inactive pay basis do not contribute to the calculation.

Intermediate amounts are not rounded. Money is displayed to two decimal places, while percentages and equivalent hours use up to two decimal places. Displayed row amounts can therefore differ slightly from a total calculated before rounding. A very small positive budget excess can display as 0.00 while retaining the above-target label. Required sales are rounded for display, not rounded upward to guarantee a target at currency-cent precision. These are planning amounts, not employee-by-employee payroll settlement figures.

Limitations:

This is an educational operating-cost estimate, not financial advice or a statutory payroll calculation. A numerically valid entry does not establish that a wage, overtime rate, or working-hours arrangement is lawful.

  • Overtime eligibility, regular-rate calculations, tipped-worker rules, and employer taxes must be checked outside the estimate. A salary allocation does not establish overtime exemption. For example, a U.S. monthly budget still requires overtime to be assessed for each workweek rather than from average weekly hours. Choosing a currency does not select or apply a country's payroll rules.
  • The single burden percentage is an effective estimate across all entered wages and salaries. It does not apply employee-specific tax limits, benefit eligibility, or different burden rates by role. Verify its coverage against payroll and benefit records, and include only employer costs not already counted elsewhere.

Worked Examples:

A weekly payroll above its target

With USD and Week selected, enter $30,000 in net sales and Quick totals of $6,000 regular wages, $600 full overtime pay, and $2,000 allocated salaries. Gross payroll is $8,600. Adding 10% burden of $860 and $400 in benefits, with other costs at 0, produces $9,860 in loaded labor and a 32.87% labor share. A 30% target allows $9,000, so Above target budget is $860. Holding labor unchanged requires $32,866.67 in sales, or $2,866.67 more than entered. An hourly-change scenario rate of $20 per hour makes the excess equivalent to 43 hours. That figure supports checking which costs could change; it does not justify removing 43 scheduled hours.

Reconciling a roster with payroll totals

The sample weekly roster has two cooks with 35 regular hours at $20 and 5 overtime hours at $30 per person, four servers with 25 regular hours at $15, and one manager with a $1,000 salary allocation. The overtime entries are assumed pay classifications, not an eligibility determination. The groups produce $1,700, $1,500, and $1,000 in gross payroll. With 10% burden, $400 in benefits, and no other costs, loaded labor is $5,020, or 16.73% of $30,000 in sales. The $400 remains unallocated, and the 30% target leaves $3,980 in Budget headroom. Equivalent quick totals of $2,900 regular wages, $300 full overtime pay, and $1,000 salaries return the same loaded total with the same employer costs. This checks the arithmetic across entry modes, not staffing adequacy.

References: