Labor Market Pulse · Restaurant Industry · October 2026
Restaurant Industry Labor Market Report: Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC MSA — October 2026
Myrtle Beach hiring booms while crew and GM pay slide.
Metro employment grew 3.6% year-over-year even as Horry County unemployment sits at 4.8% and advertised Crew pay fell to $25,366, well below the national $30,066 median.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Horry County unemployment: 4.8% — vs 4.0% SC, 4.2% national (Aug 2026)
- Metro employment growth: 3.6% YoY — Among strongest small-metro gains nationally
- Statewide labor availability: 43 workers/100 openings — SC-wide, signals structural tightness
- Horry County avg weekly wage: $974 — Lowest among SC's largest counties, Q1 2026
Key takeaways
Local General Manager pay is sliding against a rising national line.
Metro Restaurant Manager/GM advertised pay is down with moderate magnitude to $55,884, a widening gap against the stable $59,724 national median. Current conditions suggest Myrtle Beach operators are compressing management compensation even as leisure and hospitality employment statewide grows 10,300 jobs annually, a pattern worth flagging before it affects GM retention.
Crew pay erosion stands out against a flat national trend.
Metro Crew advertised pay fell with moderate magnitude to $25,366 while the national median held stable at $30,066 — a gap exceeding $4,700. That divergence may signal Myrtle Beach employers leaning on seasonal labor supply instead of raising entry-level wages, a posture that carries risk given the county's 4.8% unemployment outpaces the metro's own hiring momentum.
BOH wage pressure reflects structural demand.
BLS projects cook employment to grow 12% through 2035 against just 2% for waiters nationally, and metro Line Cook pay ($33,800) remains stable even as turnover and fill-difficulty worsen statewide. Operators benchmarking kitchen pay against last year's figures risk understating the wage floor needed to retain BOH staff through a tourism season that depends on consistent kitchen throughput.
Tipped-wage flexibility arrives just as FOH competition peaks.
October's federal repeal of the 80/20 rule removes the ceiling on non-tip-producing duties paid at the $2.13 tipped rate, a change layered onto South Carolina's unchanged $7.25/$2.13 wage floor. Applying it aggressively during Q4 seasonal hiring, when accommodation and food services is already the largest employer in Horry County, may undercut the take-home pay that keeps servers from shifting to competing coastal properties.
Median advertised pay by role — Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant Restaurant Manager | $26,127 | $37,440 | $40,768 | Stable | $39,211 |
| Catering Manager * | $37,440 | $49,250 | $55,000 | Stable | $50,076 |
| Crew | $23,525 | $25,366 | $29,120 | Moderate decline | $30,066 |
| Line Cook | $28,756 | $33,800 | $35,360 | Stable | $37,421 |
| Restaurant Manager/General Manager | $43,818 | $55,884 | $60,000 | Moderate decline | $59,724 |
| Server | $27,044 | $31,200 | $33,642 | Stable | $35,024 |
| Shift Manager | $26,544 | $29,289 | $31,237 | Stable | $33,024 |
* 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
Myrtle Beach's leisure and hospitality sector continues to outrun the rest of the state, contributing to employment growth of 3.6% year-over-year metro-wide even as Horry County's unemployment rate sits at 4.8% — above both the state's 4.0% and the national 4.2%, a sign the labor pool is expanding but not keeping pace with hiring demand. South Carolina's statewide ratio of 43 available workers for every 100 open jobs, combined with the federal 80/20 rule's October repeal, is reshaping how operators structure front-of-house pay as entry-level seasonal competition intensifies heading into Q4.
What it means
Horry County's elevated unemployment alongside statewide labor scarcity points to a mismatch: workers are present but not converting into applicants for restaurant roles, which keeps turnover (near 80% nationally) the dominant cost driver over base wage inflation. Repeal of the 80/20 rule gives operators room to shift side-work hours onto the $2.13 tipped base without the prior 20% ceiling, but doing so during a tight seasonal labor window risks eroding the take-home pay that keeps servers from walking to a competitor down Ocean Boulevard. Consider evaluating whether side-work reallocation under the new federal guidance saves enough in direct wage cost to offset the retention risk it introduces during peak tourist season.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Horry County's 4.8% unemployment rate converges toward the metro's stronger 3.6% year-over-year job growth over the next two reporting cycles. A persistent gap would confirm a skills or location mismatch that extends beyond a temporary seasonal lag, shaping how aggressively operators need to recruit outside the immediate labor shed.
Policy follow-through: Track how many Myrtle Beach operators actually adjust side-work scheduling under the repealed 80/20 rule in the next 30-60 days. Early adoption patterns will indicate whether the federal guidance becomes a meaningful lever on FOH labor cost or remains largely unused given retention pressure.
Emerging pressure point: South Carolina's Food & Hospitality sector logged 7 WARN notices affecting 1,071 employees through October — worth monitoring for Myrtle Beach-specific closures or restructurings as the shoulder season approaches and seasonal staffing plans firm up.
Worth watching: Crew and GM advertised pay softness locally, against stable-to-up national medians, bears watching into the holiday hiring push. If the metro gap widens further, operators competing for seasonal workers against Charleston's tighter 3.2% unemployment market may need to reconsider posted rates before Q1.
Sources
- Financial Channel / BLS — Myrtle Beach metro employment grew 3.6% year-over-year
- SC Department of Employment and Workforce — Horry County unemployment at 4.8% in August 2026
- Dunhill Staffing / SC DEW — South Carolina has 43 available workers per 100 open jobs
- U.S. Department of Labor — DOL withdrew the 80/20 tipped wage rule in October 2026
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — BLS projects 12% cook employment growth vs 2% for waiters through 2035
- BLS County Employment and Wages — Horry County average weekly wage of $974 in Q1 2026
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.
Free to read and cite with attribution to WageScape. Terms of use.