Foodservice salaries make up a large expenditure of a restaurant or commercial kitchen's budget. The owner and operator of the business must strike the perfect balance of having their establishment well staffed, but not so well staffed that the restaurant is bleeding money on wait-staff, cooks, bartenders, managers and more.

In order to understand how to structure salaries, take some time to understand restaurant and food service salary tools that the professionals use when putting together their business plans. The latest news and trends will give you a guideline with which you can build a successful business.

1. Read up on restaurant and food service salary tools news and trends by viewing online publications.

2. Look for graphs and spreadsheets about food service salaries.

3. Seek out restaurant organizations for more information on restaurant and foodservice salary tools news and trends

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Learn about restaurant and food service salary tools news and trends by reading magazines

There are several publications on the food service industry that are directed toward the business aspect of running such an establishment. Often these magazines publish articles and reports about the latest salary tools associated with the industry. Look to these magazines as a great source of information and guide to your business.

I recommend: Check out the website for Nation's Restaurant News. This is an online magazine that offers a comprehensive glance at all angles of the food service industry, including published articles on salary tools. Restaurants & Institutions is another online magazine that offers articles for free as well as comprehensive salary tool reports for sale.

Find hard data on restaurant salaries

In order to locate information on restaurant and food service salary tools, seek out websites dedicated to the latest data on restaurant employee salaries. Many publications within the industry frequently publish data on food service salaries. Just be sure that you are looking at the latest data available so that you can compare and strategize your business model with others in the industry.

I recommend: Check out the website for Restaurant News Resource. This offers a comprehensive chart on the latest salaries for restaurant professionals from the wait staff to the head chef. The Simply Hired website not only offers job listings but also graphs and spreadsheets on the salary tools associated with all aspects of workers in the food service industry.

Reach out to state and national organizations for information on restaurant salaries

When you're looking for restaurant salary tools, be sure to look into both national and state restaurant associations. They will offer information on news and trends in regard to salary tools that you can study and incorporate into your business model so you'll be on par with the industry standard. Some of these associations also offer seminars on how to correctly structure salaries as well. Attend those seminars for the latest news and trends within the industry.

I recommend: Check out the website for the National Restaurant Association. This is a fantastic resource for the business of owning and operating restaurants inclusive of frequent articles, which are published in relation to restaurant and food service salaries. The New York State Restaurant Association also offers news and trends on the latest salary tools in regard to food service workers working in the state of New York.

Foodservice salaries must be competitive and aggressive to ensure quality workers. Employees working in your establishment represent your company and hold the key to profitability and growth. But as a business owner or manager you must also watch your bottom line. How do you strike such a careful balancing act?

The foodservice industry employs more than 13 million people, second only to government. Experts project more than $550 billion in sales in 2008. Those numbers are only expected to increase in the next decade. With so much to gain, finding and keeping good employees with competitive restaurant employee salaries remains important to running a restaurant business.

Along with training and development, salary helps retain productive employees. Several foodservice salary tools are available to help you determine a fair yet favorable foodservice salary to offer potential job candidates or retain current employees.

When using restaurant and foodservice salary tools, be sure to include your own analysis of:

1. The candidate's individual experience in the industry and previous restaurant career salary.

2. The candidate's special training or other qualifications which would raise the potential restaurant salary.

3. The candidate's personality traits which could in turn boost productivity and restaurant salary.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Utilize available online restaurant salary tools

Salaries for restaurant professionals or at least a base rate to start from can easily be found online. Researchers make available their findings and you can easily search foodservice salaries in a particular occupation and compare those rates regionally. Obviously, a line cook isn't going to reach the same salary as an executive chef.

I recommend: View individual salary reports from comparable companies at Vault. Obtain national averages and compare results from your region at CareerBuilder. A free salary report is available from Salary Search.

Keep informed of foodservice salaries and changes in the industry

The foodservice and restaurant industry constantly changes. Stay up-to-date on management styles and techniques which could effect how you run your business as well as setting restaurant salaries.

I recommend: Sign up for e-mail alerts on the latest foodservice industry news from the National Restaurant Association's SmartBrief service. Browse articles from Restaurants & Institutions magazine.

Use foodservice salary tools to help you learn how to negotiate

Restaurant and foodservice salary tools warn that negotiations can be somewhat of a chess game. You may find seeking the candidate's limitations without pushing him or her too far can be maddening.

I recommend: Read expert tips at PayScale on how to manage pay negotiations without ruining your chances to bank an extraordinary employee. Read this article from Salary.com detailing specific goals to keep in mind when negotiating salary.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Job seekers can access the same restaurant salary tools. Keep that in mind when you conduct negotiations.
• •  Along with salary, an attractive benefits package, flexible work time and bonuses may be bargaining chips.

There are several factors that affect restaurant salaries, including geographic region, educational requirements and job description. As an employer, you need to be able to set competitive wages to attract the type of employee that you want working for you.

Depending on your situation, you may be able to take advantage of free salary tools. You can use restaurant and foodservice salary tools for beginners to help you with the following tasks:

1. Determine the average for a foodservice salary on a national or regional basis with online tools.

2. Compare your wages to those offered by your competitors to determine the salary you want to offer.

3. Determine payroll for both hourly and salary employees by using software designed to handle the task.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use online salary tools for restaurant employee salaries

Online salary tools can help you narrow down the range of salaries that you want to offer. You can use these tools to find out the high and low ends of the compensation spectrum for the industry. You can find many of these tools online for free.

I recommend: Indeed provides an overview for foodservice salaries broken down by position. You can narrow the search to find the average salary for your area by using the restaurant and foodservice salary tools on its website. PayScale offers several tools designed to help you find salary guidelines for foodservice industry jobs. These tools include its career research center.

Analyze competitor's wages with a foodservice or restaurant salary tool

Sometimes the best place to start is by knowing what your competitors pay. This way you know exactly what you need to offer, which means you can keep your salary as low as possible and still attract top candidates. In some cases, you can use these salary tools to determine whether a potential employee is trying to get you to offer a wage that is significantly higher than his or her current one.

I recommend: Glassdoor.com offers the restaurant salary tools you need to find out what your competition is paying in salaries. Use its tools to help you determine what salaries for restaurant professionals you need to offer to attract top professionals. Business & Legal Reports offers a free salary report to help you determine whether or not you are offering competitive wages. It also offers free ezines as part of its tools.

Find software that comes with restaurant and foodservice salary tools

One of the best salary tools you can use is one that helps you with compensation or payroll. The features tend to vary by provider, so you'll want to look for companies that offer free trials or live demos. It also helps to find companies that provide software specific to your industry, though you may be able to use a general software program.

I recommend: Halogen Software offers eCompensation, a software program designed to help you offer merit-based compensation. The company offers a live demo or free trial of the product. Business Software Solutions offers a program with built-in salary tools. It handles payroll for hourly and salary-based employees.