Labor Market Pulse · Restaurant Industry · August 2026
Restaurant Industry Labor Market Report: Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL MSA — August 2026
Quad-Cities management pay slips as national restaurant hiring surges.
Restaurant Manager/GM advertised pay fell to a metro median of $58,678 even as national restaurant payrolls grew by 59,200 jobs in August, while Assistant Manager pay climbed to $42,995 — a compression pattern operators should watch closely.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- Restaurant Manager/GM pay: $58,678 — Down significantly; below $59,762 national median
- Scott County, IA unemployment: ~3.0% — vs 3.7% Rock Island County, IL
- National restaurant job growth: +59,200 jobs — Largest one-month gain since January 2023
- Scott County wage growth: +4.2% y/y — Largest gain among large Iowa counties, Q3 2025
Key takeaways
Management pay is falling while national restaurant hiring surges.
Restaurant Manager/GM advertised pay dropped a significant margin locally to $58,678, moving opposite the national restaurant employment gain of 59,200 jobs in August. That divergence suggests Quad-Cities operators may be filling management vacancies through internal promotion rather than external hires, which changes how leaders should benchmark this role.
Assistant Manager pay is climbing while GM pay retreats.
Assistant Restaurant Manager advertised pay rose to a metro median of $42,995, well above the $39,000 national figure, even as the GM role above it declined. Consider whether this compression is intentional — building a deeper bench before promotion — or an unplanned signal that GM roles are harder to differentiate on pay.
Two counties, two labor markets, one staffing footprint.
Scott County, Iowa unemployment near 3% contrasts with Rock Island County, Illinois at 3.7% and statewide Illinois conditions closer to 4.7%. Multi-unit operators spanning both sides of the river may need location-specific pay tables rather than a single metro-wide rate card.
Front-of-house pay floors are stable here but rising elsewhere.
Server and Crew advertised pay held flat locally at $31,200 even as tip-credit elimination spreads to seven states and Chicago's tipped cash wage climbs toward $13.94 under its One Fair Wage phase-in. Illinois-side Quad-Cities locations should watch whether that statewide policy direction eventually reaches downstate wage floors.
Median advertised pay by role — Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant Restaurant Manager | $34,326 | $42,995 | $46,800 | Significant increase | $39,000 |
| Catering Manager * | $40,170 | $55,546 | $60,535 | Stable | $51,585 |
| Crew | $25,804 | $31,200 | $31,200 | Stable | $29,791 |
| Line Cook | $30,890 | $34,424 | $36,944 | Stable | $36,702 |
| Restaurant Manager/General Manager | $49,000 | $58,678 | $75,000 | Significant decline | $59,762 |
| Server | $27,326 | $31,200 | $34,053 | Stable | $34,915 |
| Shift Manager | $28,195 | $32,635 | $34,320 | Moderate decline | $32,649 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Local market conditions
Quad-Cities restaurant hiring is playing out against a metro labor market where Iowa-side unemployment (Scott County near 3%) sits well below Illinois-side conditions (Rock Island County at 3.7%, statewide Illinois at 4.7%), forcing operators on both banks of the river to run effectively two different labor strategies for the same trade area. National restaurant payrolls posted their largest one-month jump since January 2023 in August, but local Restaurant Manager and Shift Manager advertised pay both moved down, suggesting Quad-Cities operators are adding shifts and hours faster than they're raising management pay to fill them.
What it means
Falling advertised pay for Restaurant Manager/GM and Shift Manager roles amid a national hiring surge is consistent with employers leaning on internal promotion and scheduling efficiency rather than external recruitment to fill management gaps — a signal that retention economics, not just wage competitiveness, now drive labor cost control here. With Scott County wages up 4.2% year-over-year but concentrated outside food service, cross-border commuting between Iowa and Illinois locations remains a live risk for both hourly and management staffing. Consider reviewing whether management pay compression is masking a retention gap rather than reflecting genuine slack in the local manager candidate pool.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Illinois' One Fair Wage tip-credit phase-down is a Chicago-specific policy for now, but the trajectory toward eliminating tip credit statewide bears monitoring for any Rock Island or Moline-side ordinance activity.
Early indicator: National full-service restaurant employment remains 3.6% below pre-pandemic levels while QSR/casual segments add jobs freely — watch whether Quad-Cities full-service operators report longer back-of-house vacancy durations than counter-service concepts locally.
Emerging pressure point: Scott County's 4.2% wage growth outpaced most large Iowa counties in the most recent data, concentrated outside food service — a signal that restaurant employers may need to raise entry-level pay simply to stay competitive with warehousing and manufacturing across the river valley.
Potential inflection point: August 2026 MSA-specific unemployment data has not yet published; the next BLS release should clarify whether the metro's improving year-over-year trend (last seen at 5.1% in December 2025) has continued into late summer hiring season.
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. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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