Staffing

5 things your crew wants you to know about pay, bosses and AI

Toast's survey of 702 restaurant workers revealed that raises and better benefits are landing, but pay, scheduling and managers still decide who stays.

Photo: Adobe

October 22, 2026 by Cherryh Cansler — Publisher, FastCasual.com

Summarize withChatGPTGrokPerplexityClaude

The raises appear to be paying off. Two-thirds of restaurant employees now say they're satisfied with their pay, a 12-point jump from a year ago, according to Toast's 2026Voice of the Restaurant Employee Survey, released Thursday.

The catch: Poor hourly pay is still the top reason workers would consider leaving and among those who plan to leave the restaurant industry within two years, 55% want better pay. Toast's report suggests operators who are struggling to staff up have responded by rewarding the workers they already have. Here's what the survey tells fast-casual operators about where to focus next.

1. Raises are landing, but they're the price of entry

Sixty-seven percent of employees said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their pay, up 12 percentage points from 2025. Only 14% were unsatisfied to any extent, down 8 points.

"Restaurant employees are, by and large, happier with their pay than previous years," Toast said in the report.

Tips are rising too. Among the 434 tipped employees surveyed, 42% said their tips increased in the past 12 months, while 15% saw a decrease.

The takeaway: Satisfaction is up, but pay is still the top reason workers would look elsewhere (see No. 4). A competitive wage keeps staff in the door; it won't set a brand apart on its own.

2. Benefits are the bigger mover, and health care tops the wish list

Benefits satisfaction climbed even faster than pay satisfaction. Sixty-two percent of employees were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their benefits, up 16 percentage points, and dissatisfaction fell 9 points to 14%.

Asked for their top three desired benefits, workers picked medical coverage most often, at 24%. Close behind were free meals and paid time off at 23% each, then daily tips and 401(k) savings at 21% each. Forty-one percent of respondents already receive free meals.

The takeaway: Medical coverage leads, but four other benefits land within 3 points of it. Operators that can't match a health plan still have options workers want.

3. A flexible schedule is worth as much as a good wage

Good hourly pay and a flexible schedule tied as the most common favorite parts of the job. Each made the top three for 32% of employees. The people matter, too. Twenty-seven percent ranked connecting with guests among their favorite parts of the job, 27% cited good co-workers and 20% said making someone's day special.

The takeaway: Workers value scheduling flexibility as highly as pay. That makes the schedule a retention tool on par with the wage rate.

4. After pay, people problems push workers out

Asked what would make them consider a new job, 31% chose poor hourly pay, the top answer. Next came a difficult manager at 26% and difficult co-workers at 24%. Fifteen percent cited bad tips. The manager figure fell 4 points from 2025, and poor pay fell 2 points.

The takeaway: Two of the top three reasons workers would leave are about the people they work with. Unlike labor market conditions, management and team culture are within an operator's control.

5. Crews are more ready for AI than operators might expect

A majority of workers expressed at least some willingness to use AI for each task Toast asked about, including shift scheduling, upsell suggestions and end-of-shift summaries. Roughly 20% were extremely open to AI at work, while about 10% rejected it outright. Twenty-three percent were extremely open to AI-generated end-of-shift summaries, and the same share to AI-generated upsell suggestions. AI training was a harder sell: 12% were not at all open to AI training or coaching.

The takeaway: Workers are most receptive to AI that handles routine tasks. AI that coaches them meets more resistance, so how a tool is introduced may matter as much as what it does.
Toast, which sells AI tools to restaurants, said in the report that hourly pay, tips and benefits remain as important as ever, even as AI reaches restaurant staff.

About the survey

Boston-based Toast conducted a blind survey of 702 U.S. restaurant employees 18 and older from Feb. 13 to March 11, 2026. Respondents worked at Toast and non-Toast restaurants and did not know Toast was running the study. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Year-over-year comparisons are to Toast's 2025 survey of 624 restaurant workers. Results are not broken out by restaurant segment.

About Cherryh Cansler

---

Cherryh Cansler is Publisher of FastCasual.com and Vice President of Connect Food. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

Connect with Cherryh: