GlassRota
THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE ROTA

Hospitality wage percentage
& revenue per labour hour calculator

Calculate labour cost as a share of sales and revenue per labour hour (RPH). Combine venues, departments or shifts, then explore what changes.

Built for hospitality.
One shift or a whole group.
Your figures. Your targets.
Your working figures
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Paste figures from Excel
Best paste format

Copy these four columns, including the header, directly from Excel or Google Sheets. One row per venue, department or day/shift. Use revenue excluding VAT, the same labour cost basis and matching hours. Use 0 revenue for cleaning or support. Leave out totals, subtotals, currency codes and merged cells. Figures may contain £ and thousands commas; use a decimal point.

NameRevenueLabour costLabour hours
Restaurant250007000450
Bar150004000250
Cleaning0100080
01 / YOUR INPUTSExample figures

Start with the same period.

Use revenue, costs and hours for the same team and timeframe.

£
£
hrs
Combined hours for everyone included in your labour cost.
%
What should I include in labour cost?

Use the cost basis you normally report: basic wages, or the full employer cost including employer contributions, pension and holiday costs. Include salaried staff and their relevant hours consistently. Use the same basis in both scenarios.

Use revenue excluding VAT. This tool does not calculate tax or payroll costs for you. Keep service charge and tips on a consistent basis with your own reporting.

02 / YOUR RESULTS Updates as you type
Wage percentage30.0%

£30.00 of every £100 in revenue goes on labour.

Revenue per labour hour£50.00

Revenue generated per hour of labour.

Of every £100 in revenue£30.00 labour

The remaining £70.00 must cover every other cost and profit.

READ THE TWO TOGETHER

A lower wage percentage can come from stronger sales or lower costs. Revenue per labour hour adds another perspective, but neither number tells you whether service is properly covered.

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THE WHOLE PICTURE

Your operation, together.

Combined revenue, labour cost and hours. Ratios are calculated from totals, never averaged.

VenueRevenueLabour costHoursWage %RPHShare of labour cost

Keep the cost basis consistent. Compare venues or departments over the same period; combine days or shifts only when their figures do not overlap. Count each sale and labour hour once. For departments, allocate revenue consistently: using whole-venue sales in every department would double-count revenue. Choose “No direct revenue” for a support department: its costs and hours still contribute to the total.

FROM THE FIGURE TO THE CAUSE

You can see the percentage. What’s driving it?

Find out where cost, coverage and last-minute changes put pressure on your rota, and where to start improving it.

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THE COST LENS

Wage percentage

The share of your revenue spent on labour. Useful for tracking cost against your own budget and comparable periods.

Labour cost ÷ revenue × 100

Use wage percentage when setting a labour budget, reviewing a week or checking whether costs are keeping pace with sales. It makes the cost of staffing easy to track, but a rising percentage may reflect weaker revenue rather than extra hours. It cannot tell you whether the right people were working at the right time, or whether a cut would harm service.

THE OUTPUT LENS

Revenue per labour hour

Revenue divided by all the labour hours used to deliver it. Compare like-for-like periods in your own operation, with service quality in view.

Revenue ÷ total labour hours

Use revenue per labour hour to compare similar shifts, periods or venues and explore how staffing aligns with demand. It helps you see the output associated with the hours used. Prices, service style and revenue allocation all affect it, so compare like with like. A higher number alone does not prove better staffing: it can also hide an overstretched team, and it does not account for wage rates or profit.

BEYOND THE PERCENTAGE · GLASSROTA INSIGHTS

Cutting labour is not the same
as controlling labour.

The number is a starting point. The decision is what matters.

Read the article ↗
THE PRACTICAL DETAILS

Hospitality labour calculations, explained.

How do you calculate wage percentage?

Divide total labour cost by revenue for the same period, then multiply by 100. For example, £9,000 labour cost ÷ £30,000 revenue × 100 = 30%. Wage percentage is also called labour cost percentage.

How do you calculate revenue per labour hour?

Divide revenue by total labour hours for the same period. £30,000 revenue ÷ 600 hours = £50 revenue per labour hour. Include the hours of everyone whose labour contributes to that revenue.

Should revenue include VAT?

For this calculator, enter revenue excluding VAT so the denominator represents sales retained by the business before other costs. If your revenue figure includes VAT, use your reporting system’s net sales figure. Keep service charge and tips consistent with your reporting basis.

Do salaried staff count?

Include the portion of salaried staff costs and their relevant hours for the period if they are part of your reporting scope. Choose basic wages or full employer cost consistently across every entry and period.

Can I average wage percentages across venues?

Calculate from the combined totals. A venue with £20,000 revenue and £8,000 labour has a 40% wage cost; one with £80,000 revenue and £16,000 labour has 20%. Together, £24,000 ÷ £100,000 × 100 = 24%, not the simple average of 30%. Calculate pooled RPH from total revenue divided by total hours too.

What about departments with no revenue?

Choose No direct revenue or enter 0 revenue for support departments. Their labour cost and hours still count in the total. Their standalone wage percentage is not meaningful. Allocate each sale once, avoiding whole-venue revenue repeated in every department.

What is a good wage percentage or RPH for hospitality?

There is no single target that fits every restaurant, pub, hotel or other hospitality operation. Service style, prices, wage rates, opening hours and revenue mix all matter. Use your budget and comparable periods alongside service quality, coverage and team workload.

Where are saved periods stored?

Only in this browser on this website, if you choose Remember my periods. They do not sync to other devices. Download a backup and restore it elsewhere to transfer your history. CSV is a readable summary; the JSON backup restores the full saved setup.

Created by GlassRota. Updated 9 September 2026. Method: simple ratios calculated from your entered figures; no industry benchmark or staffing recommendation is inferred.

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