Labor Market Pulse · Restaurant Industry · August 2026
Restaurant Industry Labor Market Report: Green Bay, WI MSA — August 2026
Green Bay pays up for GMs while entry-level wages cool.
Green Bay's GM/Restaurant Manager advertised median climbed to $57,642 even as the national figure fell to $59,762, while Crew and Shift Manager pay softened locally against a Wisconsin minimum wage still frozen at $7.25.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of August 2026.
Key indicators
- GM/Manager advertised pay: $57,642 — Up locally vs down to $59,762 nationally
- Wisconsin unemployment rate: 3.2% — Down from 3.3% in July; below 4.1% national
- Brown County posted openings: 18,541 — As of Aug. 6, 2026, per Indeed.com
- Wisconsin tipped minimum wage: $2.33/hr — Unchanged since 2009; Milwaukee sets $12.00 base
Key takeaways
General manager pay is rising against the national grain.
Green Bay's GM/Restaurant Manager advertised median climbed to $57,642 while the national figure fell to $59,762 — a narrowing gap that suggests local operators are paying up specifically to retain scarce leadership talent rather than following broader market softness.
Entry-level softening doesn't mean entry-level slack.
Crew and Shift Manager advertised pay both moved down locally, but this likely reflects moderating urgency after last year's hiring surge rather than genuine surplus labor supply — Brown County's 18,500-plus open roles argue against reading this as easy hiring conditions.
Wisconsin's frozen minimum wage is a widening liability, not a stable baseline.
The $7.25/$2.33 tipped floor hasn't moved since 2009, while Milwaukee's $12.00 minimum and multi-state tip-credit elimination trends raise the reference point candidates use to judge offers. Multi-location operators anchored to the state floor risk losing front-of-house candidates to employers who've already adjusted upward.
National hiring rebound may mask a retention story locally.
Restaurant payrolls posted their largest national one-month gain since January 2023, yet operators nationally report quits and job openings both falling sharply — consistent with a market where retaining current staff, not filling new postings, is becoming the more urgent lever on labor cost.
Median advertised pay by role — Green Bay, WI MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant Restaurant Manager | $32,283 | $37,440 | $41,199 | Stable | $39,000 |
| Catering Manager * | $37,635 | $47,874 | $52,715 | Moderate decline | $51,585 |
| Crew | $23,920 | $27,465 | $30,203 | Moderate decline | $29,791 |
| Line Cook | $30,052 | $35,360 | $37,440 | Stable | $36,702 |
| Restaurant Manager/General Manager | $49,758 | $57,642 | $62,500 | Moderate increase | $59,762 |
| Server | $26,741 | $32,127 | $35,377 | Stable | $34,915 |
| Shift Manager | $28,443 | $33,147 | $37,440 | 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
Brown County's roughly 18,500 posted openings against a 3.2% statewide unemployment rate confirm Green Bay operators are competing for a shrinking labor pool, with full-service restaurant employment nationally still 3.6% below pre-pandemic staffing levels. Wisconsin's frozen $7.25 minimum wage and $2.33 tipped rate leave local operators exposed as neighboring Milwaukee's $12.00 minimum and a wave of state-level tip-credit eliminations elsewhere raise the bar for what workers expect to earn.
What it means
Restaurant Manager/General Manager advertised pay rose to $57,642 locally even as the national figure declined — a signal that Green Bay operators are bidding up leadership roles to protect against turnover in a metro where job openings vastly outnumber available candidates. Falling advertised pay for Crew, Catering Manager, and Shift Manager roles suggests softening urgency at the entry and mid-tier level, creating room to hold base wages steady there while redirecting increases toward retention-critical management and kitchen positions. Consider reviewing whether management pay increases are being funded by savings elsewhere in the labor line, rather than expanding total labor cost as a share of revenue.
Looking ahead
Worth watching: Whether Green Bay's GM pay increase spreads to Assistant Manager and Shift Manager roles in coming months, or remains isolated to top leadership — a sign of whether retention pressure is concentrated or broadening.
Emerging pressure point: Gasoline above $4/gallon nationally is testing discretionary restaurant spending; watch whether Brown County traffic softens enough to force labor-hour cuts even as staffing remains hard to fill.
Potential inflection point: Florida's minimum wage reaching $15.00 on September 30 adds to a growing list of states abandoning tip credit — a trend that could accelerate pressure on Wisconsin legislators and reshape candidate wage expectations even absent state action.
Early indicator: Continued net job losses in Wisconsin retail and trade sectors since January 2025 may push displaced workers toward food service; monitor whether Brown County's posted-opening count begins to shrink as a result.
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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