December QSR Wage Report: Find Fast Food Wages by Zip Code

Understanding the competitive landscape of wages in your zip code is invaluable as you manage the recruitment and retention of your crew.

That’s why HourWork aggregates the data for you with our free Monthly QSR Wage Report.

What’s Included in the Fast Food Worker Wage Report?

Want to know what your competitors are paying without calling their stores? Want to be able to tell your crew that “We pay ABOVE the 75th percentile crew wages in the area”? This report is EXACTLY what you need.

Sign up for FREE and get a monthly report sent to you by email, with:

• Median, 75th percentile, and 90th percentile wages from 100,000+ quick-service restaurant job posts!
• Wage data for nearly 900 different areas across the country – yours included!
• Wages for the crew, supervisors, assistant managers,  and restaurant managers!
• Wage trends – in some areas, average wages have increased 20% in the last 12 months!

How Are Businesses in the Restaurant Industry Using the QSR Wage Report?

Use Case 1: To answer the question, “Are my pay rates competitive?”

Look at the pay rates in your general area, and determine if you are WAY OFF. Our research shows that pay is generally important, but if you’re “near enough”, quick service workers will only leave for higher pay if the in-store experience is “just OK”. You want to be above the 50% / 75% of wages in your area, and if you are, wages probably aren’t your #1 recruitment and retention issue.

ProTip: Some franchisees supplement this by having their employees (or their kids) apply to nearby jobs and figure out what the starting wages are. We don’t endorse this, but it CAN be effective.

Use Case 2: As a recruitment & retention tool

In your job posts and employee communications, you can now say, “We’re in the top 10% of food prep wages in the Raleigh area, according to QSRWages benchmarks!” You can train managers to say this in interviews too.

This helps remove the employee + applicant question, “Is this a competitive wage?” 

The Value Behind Fast Food Wage Reports

Wages aren’t everything, but they aren’t nothing either!

In our research and data on the restaurant employee experience, wages are very important to recruitment and retention outcomes. And we identified that it’s really hard to figure out what the “right” wage is. Are we offering competitive wages? Are we above market? Are we losing employees due to wages? If our competitors are advertising wages “up to” $15 per hour, what does that even mean?

QSRWages is a quick, easy monthly report that you can use to sense-check your wages. Keep a pulse on nearby wages, get averages and distributions rather than one-off examples. Make sure you’re within striking distance of being competitive. 

The data is directional, not perfect – and it is less precise than you might get by going and “applying” to work at a nearby competitor. We’re constantly working on improving the amount of data we’re collecting so we can give you better wage insights.

But the most important thing about wages: It is important to HAVE competitive wages, but competitive wages do not keep employees around. What does? The in-store experience. For that, you can use HourWork’s employee retention products to help you deliver the 11-star employee experience that will keep employees around, even when competitors are paying a little more per hour.

How the QSR Wage Report is Created

The data is pulled from hundreds of thousands of job posts from many different job boards, which are then categorized by location and job type, and are analyzed versus other nearby wages to determine the wage distribution for that position in that particular geography.

This report is updated monthly with the prior month’s reports. Positions are analyzed based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ SOC codes.

Who is HourWork?

We’re glad you asked! We’re a company that works with over 6,000 QSR locations across multiple brands (most likely yours too!).

Our easy-to-use software does two things:

1. We help you double applicant flow by re-engaging the people you already know – past applicants and former employees.
2. We help you increase retention by 30% or more by figuring out what matters most to your employees through our automated check-ins so you can build employee loyalty and prevent turnover.

Automate Crew Check-Ins to Prevent Turnover Before it Happens

• Automate new hire check-ins
• Send monthly pulse surveys to all crew members
• Seamlessly automate exit surveys
• Recognize crew members on birthdays, work anniversaries, and other special occasions 

Gain Responses & Insights That Drive Action 

• Identify at-risk employees for managers in real time 
• Understand what causes crew members to stay and leave
• Learn ways to boost crew morale and satisfaction

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