Labor Market Pulse · Restaurant Industry · October 2026
Restaurant Industry Labor Market Report: Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA — October 2026
Ogden cook pay trails the nation while shortages deepen.
Metro Line Cook pay sits at $34,320 against a $37,421 national median even as BLS projects cook employment to grow six times faster than server roles through 2035.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Metro unemployment rate: 3.5% — vs 4.2% national rate, September 2026
- Metro job growth: +1,000 jobs — July and August 2026, reversing 2025's monthly losses
- Cook vs. server job growth (BLS projection): 12% vs 2% — 2025-2035 projected growth, cooks vs waiters
- Utah restaurant turnover rate: 73.9% — vs ~80% national restaurant average
Key takeaways
Cook pay has room to run before hitting national ceilings.
Metro Line Cook median sits at $34,320 versus $37,421 nationally, even as BLS projects cook employment growing six times faster than server roles through 2035. Operators who move early on BOH pay may secure retention advantages before the gap closes industry-wide.
Server and Assistant Manager pay are both moving up locally.
Server median rose to $31,639 and Assistant Restaurant Manager pay to $39,520, both flagged as moderate upward moves against stable national trends. This divergence is consistent with a tighter Ogden-area labor pool pulling FOH and entry-management wages ahead of the national pattern.
Utah's frozen minimum wage buys cost predictability.
With SB 179 dead and state law barring local wage ordinances, tipped and base minimum wages are locked through at least 2027 — a rare planning certainty. That stability doesn't offset tightening labor supply, so expect wage pressure to show up through advertised pay rates ahead of statutory floors.
80/20 rule repeal matters more in Texas and Louisiana than in Ogden.
DOL's October withdrawal of the tipped-wage 80/20 threshold primarily benefits operators in states that enforced it strictly; Utah's practical labor cost impact is marginal. Treat this as a national policy signal to monitor ahead of any near-term Ogden cost lever.
Median advertised pay by role — Ogden-Clearfield, UT MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assistant Restaurant Manager | $27,938 | $39,520 | $40,903 | Moderate increase | $39,211 |
| Catering Manager | $38,480 | $39,520 | $44,720 | Stable | $50,076 |
| Crew | $23,633 | $28,080 | $31,062 | Stable | $30,066 |
| Line Cook | $29,528 | $34,320 | $37,440 | Moderate increase | $37,421 |
| Restaurant Manager/General Manager | $49,938 | $60,643 | $61,011 | Stable | $59,724 |
| Server | $27,844 | $31,639 | $35,100 | Moderate increase | $35,024 |
| Shift Manager | $27,600 | $31,200 | $33,280 | Stable | $33,024 |
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
Ogden-Clearfield's 3.5% unemployment rate continues to track well below the national 4.2%, with the metro adding roughly 1,000 jobs in both July and August even as 2025's monthly pace averaged a 250-job loss — a reversal suggesting hiring has stabilized after a soft patch. Restaurant staffing continues to absorb spillover effects from tighter immigration enforcement, which has thinned the entry-level labor pipeline statewide and kept upward pressure on hospitality wages despite Utah's stalled minimum wage debate (SB 179 failed) and a tipped wage frozen at $2.13 since 2009.
What it means
Cook shortages look structural — BLS projects 12% growth in cook employment through 2035 against just 2% for servers, meaning back-of-house wage compression will keep outpacing front-of-house even as local Line Cook pay ($34,320 median) trails the national figure by nearly $3,100, giving Ogden operators room to compete on pay before hitting national wage ceilings. October's federal rollback of the 80/20 tipped-wage rule reduces side-work wage exposure for servers nationally, but Utah's statutes don't require tracking that threshold in the same way some states do, so the practical local benefit is limited and shouldn't be mistaken for meaningful labor cost relief. Consider reviewing Line Cook and BOH pay bands against the metro's below-national benchmark now, before continued immigration-driven labor tightening forces a reactive catch-up.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Watch whether Ogden-Clearfield's two-month streak of ~1,000 jobs added continues into Q4 or reverts to 2025's monthly job-loss pattern. A reversal would tighten the hourly labor pool further just as seasonal holiday staffing ramps up.
Emerging pressure point: Immigration-driven entry-level labor contraction is already lifting hospitality wages statewide; track whether Weber County job ads for Crew and Line Cook roles — a signal of hiring demand, where one ad often covers several openings — show accelerating volume into November.
Worth watching: Utah's statewide turnover rate of 73.9% remains elevated against the national restaurant average near 80%; any further widening of that gap would suggest Ogden-area retention practices are outperforming peers and worth benchmarking.
Potential inflection point: National labor cost pressure is building, with 33% of operators reporting 6-14% labor cost increases mid-year. Monitor whether Ogden operators report similar cost acceleration in Q4 filings, which would signal the local wage advantage is narrowing faster than advertised pay data currently shows.
Sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics / Utah Dept. of Workforce Services — Ogden-Clearfield unemployment rate and job growth figures
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — Cook employment projected to grow 12% vs 2% for waiters, 2025-2035
- U.S. Department of Labor — DOL withdrawal of 80/20 tipped wage rule, October 2026
- Utah State Legislature — Utah SB 179 minimum wage increase failed to pass
- Utah restaurant labor market research — Utah restaurant annual turnover rate of 73.9%
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — Ogden-Clearfield added 1,000 jobs in July and August 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.
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