Labor cost and shift planner

What you will enter

• Shifts: one row per continuous paid segment with employee, role, weekday, start, end and hourly rate. Split rows around unpaid meal periods and at midnight.
• Cost assumptions: weekly net sales, your estimate of employer costs above wages, other fixed weekly employer costs, and the hourly minimum you verified for these jobs.
• Overtime rule: the weekly 40-hour, 1.5× rule, selected by you after checking it applies. Other rules are declared unsupported rather than guessed.
• Coverage checks (optional): a weekday, role, time window and minimum people; the planner lists any part of the window that falls short. Leave them out to cost the week from shifts alone; the result then says coverage was not checked.

What it does and does not calculate

Supported: the weekly 40-hour, 1.5× rule for covered nonexempt employees, one hourly rate per employee, shifts within one day. Not calculated: daily overtime, tip credits and cash wages, multiple rates or bonuses (which require a weighted regular rate), salaried exemptions, predictive-scheduling premiums, meal-period penalties and state-specific rules. Verify what applies to you with the official sources and your payroll provider.

The formula

For each employee: weekly hours = Σ (shift end − shift start). Wages = min(40, hours) × rate + max(0, hours − 40) × rate × 1.5 under the weekly 40-hour rule. Full labor cost = Σ wages × (1 + employer burden %) + other fixed weekly costs. Labor % = full labor cost ÷ weekly net sales × 100. A coverage gap is any part of the chosen window where fewer people in that role are on shift than the minimum you set.

A worked example

Fictional example: one cook works six 8-hour shifts at $22 an hour: 48 hours, 8 of them overtime. Wages are 40 × $22 + 8 × $33 = $1,144. With a 15% employer-cost allowance and $200 of fixed weekly costs the full cost is $1,515.60, which is 10.1% of $15,000 in weekly sales before anyone else is scheduled. A second cook at 20 hours changes the total but creates no overtime.

Reading the result

If the labor percentage is above your plan, first compare projected sales with the period you are scheduling. Lower sales can raise the percentage even when payroll is unchanged. Then check paid hours, hourly rates, overtime and the employer costs you entered. Use the by-employee and by-day tables to find differences from your plan; overlapping shifts may be needed for service, training or breaks. Take the verified regular and overtime totals into the hourly pay budget to see what average rate the plan supports.

Keep working on the decision

• Read: hire your opening team without paying for weeks of idle time
• Test a proposed hourly rate against the plan
• Learn labor cost from the first percentage
• Download the hiring timeline, interview scorecard, onboarding and training templates
• New to percentages? Start with restaurant math from zero.
• Add this decision to your guided opening plan

Sources and scope

• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA (revised October 2019)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the FLSA (revised July 2008)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #2: Restaurants and Fast Food Establishments Under the FLSA (revised December 2016)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the FLSA
• IRS Publication 15 (2026), Employer's Tax Guide: social security 6.2% to the $184,500 wage base, Medicare 1.45%, FUTA 6.0% on the first $7,000 less up to a 5.4% credit
• New York State Department of Labor, Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers (rates for January 1 to December 31, 2026)
• New Jersey Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Compliance FAQs ($15.92 for most workers effective January 1, 2026)

The example minimum and burden are illustrative inputs, not rates. Confirm jurisdiction, year and each employee's classification with the official sources and your payroll provider.