Sales Per Labour Hour: Formula and Restaurant Examples

What is sales per labour hour?

Sales per labour hour is a restaurant productivity KPI that shows how much sales revenue is generated for every paid labour hour worked. It helps managers understand whether staffing levels are aligned with demand, rather than only looking at total wage cost or labour percentage.

This matters because labour cost percentage can hide what is happening inside the week. A restaurant may have an acceptable weekly labour percentage but still be overstaffed on quiet lunches and under-supported during peak dinner service. Sales per labour hour helps reveal those patterns more clearly.

Sales per labour hour formula

The formula is simple: divide total sales by total labour hours for the same period. The period can be a shift, a day, a week or a month, but both numbers must cover the same time period.

For example, if a restaurant generates £5,000 in sales during a shift and the team works 80 total labour hours, sales per labour hour is £62.50.

This means the restaurant generated £62.50 in revenue for every hour of labour used during that shift.

Sales per labour hour example

In this example, Saturday dinner is the most productive period because each labour hour generates more sales. Monday lunch is the weakest period and may need a rota review, stronger sales activity or a different staffing structure.

Why restaurants track sales per labour hour

Restaurants track sales per labour hour because it connects staffing decisions with actual revenue productivity. Labour cost percentage tells managers how much revenue is spent on labour. Sales per labour hour shows how effectively those hours are being used.

• Identify overstaffed quiet periods
• Compare productivity across dayparts
• Set labour hour targets before writing the rota
• Improve forecasting and scheduling accuracy
• Review whether service peaks need more support
• Measure whether rota changes improve productivity

For broader labour cost strategy, read the Restaurant Labour Cost Guide.

Sales per labour hour vs labour cost percentage

Labour cost percentage and sales per labour hour are related, but they answer different questions. Labour cost percentage tells you how much labour costs compared with sales. Sales per labour hour tells you how productive the scheduled hours are.

A manager should use both. Labour percentage protects margin, while sales per labour hour helps explain where rota productivity is strong or weak.

What is a good sales per labour hour?

There is no universal good sales per labour hour because every restaurant model is different. A quick service restaurant, coffee shop, casual dining venue and fine dining restaurant all have different average spend, service expectations and staffing needs.

The best approach is to build your own baseline. Start by calculating sales per labour hour by daypart for several weeks, then compare similar periods against each other. Monday lunch should be compared with other Monday lunches, not with Saturday dinner.

How to use SPLH when writing a rota

Sales per labour hour is most useful before the rota is published. If you know your sales forecast and target SPLH, you can estimate how many labour hours the business can afford.

For example, if Friday dinner is forecast to generate £4,800 and your target is £80 sales per labour hour, the rota target is 60 labour hours. Managers can then decide how to distribute those hours across kitchen, floor, bar, hosting and management.

The Staff Schedule & Labour Cost Calculator calculates sales per labour hour automatically from weekly sales and scheduled hours.

Daypart tracking: where SPLH becomes powerful

Looking only at weekly SPLH can hide the real story. The strongest use of this KPI is by daypart: breakfast, lunch, afternoon, dinner, late night or event service. This shows where staffing hours are working and where they are being wasted.

• Track breakfast separately from lunch and dinner
• Compare weekday lunches against other weekday lunches
• Review prep hours separately from service hours where possible
• Watch delivery or takeaway periods separately if they use different labour
• Use weather, events and bookings to explain unusual results

This prevents managers from cutting labour in the wrong place. A low weekly result may be caused by quiet afternoons, not by the busy dinner shift that actually needs support.

Sales per labour hour and guest experience

A higher sales per labour hour is not always better if it comes from understaffing. If the team is too stretched, guests may wait longer, spend less and return less often. The target should improve productivity without damaging service.

Managers should review SPLH alongside service indicators such as wait times, complaints, table turn time, staff feedback and average spend. A productive rota should protect both margin and guest experience.

How to improve sales per labour hour

• Build rotas around forecasted sales rather than habit
• Reduce dead labour in quiet periods
• Cross-train staff so teams can flex across roles
• Improve upselling and average spend per guest
• Review prep and close-down hours separately
• Use daypart targets instead of one weekly target
• Track results consistently week after week

For practical staffing actions, read How to Reduce Restaurant Staffing Costs Without Hurting Service.

Common mistakes when using SPLH

• Using gross sales one week and net sales another week
• Ignoring salaried or management hours
• Comparing lunch with dinner instead of like-for-like periods
• Using SPLH alone without labour cost percentage
• Cutting labour when the real issue is low sales or poor average spend
• Setting one target for every department and daypart

The goal is not to chase a number blindly. The goal is to make the rota more accurate, more productive and better matched to real demand.