Survey: How restaurant industry workers feel about pay, tips, benefits, and AI

While restaurants are feeling the pinch of a shrinking workforce — perhaps for that very reason — there’s been an uptick in restaurant industry employees’ pay and satisfaction.

A survey conducted by Toast in January and February 2026 shows a significant jump in restaurant employees’ pay satisfaction compared to its 2025 survey and, similarly, a corresponding increase in satisfaction with benefits. If restaurant operators are finding it more difficult to fill their staff, it seems they’ve responded by rewarding the folks they do employ.

Key takeaways from the 2026 restaurant employee perspectives tracker

Among the 702 restaurant employees surveyed:

• Pay satisfaction is up: 67% were extremely satisfied or satisfied with their pay, up 12 points year over year
• 42% of tipped employees reported tips increased in the past 12 months
• Benefits: 62% were extremely satisfied or satisfied, up 16 points year over year
• Flexible schedule and good pay: Most common favorite aspects of job (32% ranked in top three)
• Poor hourly pay: Most common pain point (31% ranked in top three)

How do restaurant employees feel about their pay?

Among the 702 restaurant employees surveyed:

• 67% of restaurant employees were satisfied with their pay, up 12 points year over year
• 42% were satisfied, up 6 points year over year
• 25% were extremely satisfied, up 6 points year over year
• 14% were unsatisfied to any extent, down 8 points year over year

In short: Restaurant employees are, by and large, happier with their pay than in previous years. Toast survey data showed a significant uptick across the board in satisfaction — in total, a 12-percentage-point year-over-year rise in satisfaction. Naturally, dissatisfaction experienced a corresponding drop, with just 14% expressing they were unsatisfied to some extent, an 8-percentage-point drop from 2025.

Analysis from the National Restaurant Association has shown the U.S. workforce has shrunk in recent years — especially among younger folks who often work in the industry — complicating operators’ task of filling out a staff. It appears those operators have responded by rewarding the employees they do have.

How has tipping changed for restaurant employees in 2026?

Among the 434 restaurant employees that receive tips surveyed:

• 42% of restaurant employees saw tips increase in the last 12 months
• 37% saw no change in tips
• 15% saw tips decrease
• 6% didn’t know

Tips are, of course, a major part of restaurant employee compensation in the U.S. for front-of-house workers. By and large, industry workers reported an uptick in tips in 2026. Toast’s tipping index found the average full-service restaurant tip was 19.1% in Q2 2026.

Among respondents who receive tips, 42% saw an increase while just 15% saw a decrease.

How do restaurant employees feel about their benefits?

Among the 702 restaurant employees surveyed:

• 62% of restaurant employees were extremely satisfied or satisfied with their benefits, up 16 points year over year
• 23% were extremely satisfied, up 7 points year over year
• Top priority: medical benefits at 24% ranked in their top three
• 23% of employees listed PTO as a top three priority
• 41% receive free meals as a benefit

Similar to pay, restaurant employees were, by and large, satisfied with their benefits — though that’s not to say they didn’t feel there was room for improvement. Overall, 62% described being satisfied with their benefits to any extent — 23% extremely satisfied, 38% satisfied — while 14% were unsatisfied. That’s a 16-percentage-point rise in satisfaction from 2025 and a 9-percentage-point drop in dissatisfaction.

Drilling down further, perhaps unsurprisingly, when asked to list their top three desired benefits, medical benefits were the top choice at 24%. Not far behind were free meals (23%), paid time off (23%), daily tips (21%), and 401(k) retirement savings (21%). Early wage access, or same-day pay, was in 19% of the top three selections, while it was received by 18% of respondents.

What do restaurant employees like about their jobs?

Among the 702 restaurant employees surveyed:

• Money talks: 32% of restaurant employees chose “provides good hourly pay” as a top-three favorite aspect of their job
• 32% cited a flexible schedule
• Hospitality matters: 27% said connecting with guests and 20% said making someone’s day special was a top-three favorite aspect of their job
• 27% cited good coworkers
• Trying new food and drinks: up 5 points year over year to 16%

It’s not exactly a shocker that folks who like their job are, typically speaking, satisfied with their pay. That holds true for restaurant workers. When asked to list their favorite aspects about their current job, 32% selected “provides good hourly pay” in their top three. “Provides a flexible schedule” also stood at 32%.

Fittingly, restaurants seemed to be staffed increasingly with gourmands, with 16% listing “trying new food and drinks” as a favorite aspect of their role — a 5-percentage-point increase from 2025.

What are the pain points for restaurant employees?

Among the 702 restaurant employees surveyed:

• 31% of restaurant employees cited poor hourly pay as a reason to leave their job
• 26% said a difficult manager, down 4 points year over year
• 55% of restaurant workers who plan to leave the industry want better pay
• 32% of leaving workers cited benefits; 31% cited stability
• 15% said bad tips

While Toast’s survey shows restaurant workers are increasingly satisfied with their pay, not all employees fall in that bucket. When asked which factors from their current job would make them consider looking for a new role, the top response (31%) was “poor hourly pay.” That was a 2-percentage-point drop from 2025. It probably isn’t surprising that hourly pay could serve as an engine for both employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Pay, after all, is a major motivator in any field.

Tensions among employees and managers remain a motivator for moving jobs, with 26% citing a difficult manager and, similarly, 24% of respondents citing difficult coworkers as a factor for leaving their job.

Similarly, among those respondents who plan to leave the industry within two years, pay was the top motivator (55%), followed by benefits (32%), and stability (31%).

Do restaurant workers want to use AI?

Among the 702 restaurant employees surveyed:

• Just around 10% of restaurant workers seem to fully reject the idea of using AI at work
• In general, around 20% are extremely open to using AI for work tasks
• 23% are extremely open to AI-generated end-of-shift summaries
• 23% are extremely open to AI-generated upsell suggestions
• 12% are not at all open to AI training or coaching

It’s an AI-driven world in 2026, even in restaurants, and most industry workers expressed a willingness to use AI on the job.

Toast asked respondents whether they’d be open to incorporating AI for work tasks — things like shift scheduling, upselling suggestions, or summarizing shifts — and roughly 20% were extremely open while about 10% rejected using AI outright. Overall, a majority of workers expressed some willingness to use AI for each task.

AI making its way into the lives of bartenders and servers surely indicates times are changing but, as Toast’s data shows, familiar issues — hourly pay, tips, and benefits — remain as important as ever.  Even as the world changes around it, the heart of hospitality endures, as do the people who power it.

Methodology

To help better understand the restaurant industry, Toast conducted a blind survey of 702 U.S.-based restaurant employees who are 18+, including both Toast and non-Toast customers, from Feb. 13, 2026 to March 11, 2026. Respondents did not know Toast was fielding the study. Using a standard margin of error calculation, at a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error is +/- 4%.

Toast conducted a blind survey from Jan. 31, 2025, to Feb. 19, 2025, of 624 respondents 18 years old and older who are based in the U.S. and are currently employed at a restaurant, including both Toast and non-Toast customers. Respondents were not made aware that Toast was fielding the study. Panel providers granted incentives to restaurant respondents for participation. Using a standard margin of error calculation, the margin of error is on average +/- 4%.

This story was produced by Toast and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.