Restaurant costs reflect several moving parts: food prices, labor, sales volume, restaurant format, and the value created between farm and customer. In the United States, inflation-adjusted foodservice-outlet sales reached $1.41 trillion in 2025, while food-away-from-home purchases reached $3,936 per person. The benchmarks below put restaurant operating costs and demand into a consistent national context.
Contents
- Market size and long-term growth
- Full-service and limited-service sales mix
- Seasonal demand and customer spending
- Food-price inflation and cost pressure
- Restaurant labor wage benchmarks
- Payroll earnings by restaurant format
- Value added and operating signals
Market size and long-term growth
The U.S. foodservice market is large, and its long-run growth is clearer when measured in inflation-adjusted dollars. The USDA Economic Research Service reported that inflation-adjusted food sales at foodservice and food-retailing outlets totaled $2.51 trillion in 2025. The comparable 1997 total was $1.56 trillion, an increase of 61.4% from 1997 to 2025. These figures cover both foodservice and food-retailing outlets, so they are broader than restaurant sales alone. USDA ERS, “Food Service Industry - Market Segments”
Foodservice outlets accounted for $1.41 trillion of inflation-adjusted sales in 2025, compared with $818 billion in 1997. That represents a 73.0% increase over the period. The foodservice total is therefore a useful high-level measure of the customer market available to restaurants and other prepared-food businesses, while still requiring operators to separate their own format and channel from the wider category.
Two restaurant segments supplied especially large portions of the 2025 total. Inflation-adjusted full-service restaurant food sales were $488.4 billion, and inflation-adjusted limited-service restaurant food sales were $516.1 billion. Limited-service sales increased 88.5% from 1997 to 2025, indicating faster long-term growth for that segment than the foodservice total as a whole.
Full-service and limited-service sales mix
Full-service and limited-service restaurants together represented 71.0% of U.S. food-away-from-home spending in 2025. Limited-service restaurants represented 36.5%, while full-service restaurants represented 34.5%. Other food-away-from-home establishments accounted for the remaining 29.0%. The percentages describe spending shares, not profit margins or cost ratios. USDA ERS, “Food Service Industry - Market Segments”
The preceding year showed a nearly even split between the two principal formats. In 2024, full-service restaurants represented 36.3% of food-away-from-home spending and limited-service restaurants represented 36.2%. Other food-away-from-home outlets represented 27.4%. USDA ERS, “Full-service surpasses limited-service restaurant sales in 2024”
| Measure | Full-service | Limited-service | Other outlets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of food-away-from-home spending, 2025 | 34.5% | 36.5% | 29.0% |
| Share of food-away-from-home spending, 2024 | 36.3% | 36.2% | 27.4% |
| Average daily inflation-adjusted sales, January 2025 | $1,193 million | $1,277 million | $672 million |
The USDA also reported that limited-service restaurants reached a 38.0% share of food-away-from-home spending in 2020. That earlier share provides context for how format mix can move across measurement periods, but it does not by itself identify the causes of the change.
For operators, these statistics make format a central cost lens. A full-service business and a limited-service business compete for the same broad food-away-from-home spending pool while facing different labor structures, service models, and sales patterns. The national shares do not substitute for a restaurant’s own food-cost percentage, labor-cost percentage, rent, utilities, or other operating measurements.
Seasonal demand and customer spending
Average daily sales varied across the 2025 calendar. Inflation-adjusted full-service restaurant sales averaged $1,193 million per day in January and peaked at $1,427 million per day in May. Limited-service restaurants averaged $1,277 million per day in January and reached a May peak of $1,493 million. These are average daily sales figures in millions of dollars, not sales per location. USDA ERS, “Food Service Industry - Market Segments”
Other food-away-from-home outlets followed a different monthly pattern in the supplied series. Average daily inflation-adjusted sales were $672 million in January 2025 and peaked at $723 million in February. The different peak month is a reminder that foodservice demand is not uniform across formats.
At the household level, nominal per-capita U.S. food-away-from-home purchases reached $3,936 in 2025. Food-away-from-home purchases accounted for 56.3% of total U.S. food expenditures. The per-capita figure is nominal, while the segment sales figures above are inflation-adjusted, so the measures should not be compared as though they use the same dollar basis.
These demand measures can help frame scheduling and purchasing questions. January-to-May movement in average daily sales indicates that a restaurant may face changing demand during the year, but the national figures do not establish a forecast for any individual location. Local traffic, concept, geography, menu, and operating hours still determine the relevant sales pattern.
Food-price inflation and cost pressure
Food-away-from-home prices rose 7.7% in 2022, 7.1% in 2023, 4.1% in 2024, and 3.8% in 2025, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. USDA forecast a 3.5% increase for 2026, which equals the 20-year historical average annual increase. The 2026 figure is a forecast, not a measured result. USDA ERS, “Food Price Outlook - Summary Findings”
The BLS December-to-December measures provide a more detailed view of 2025 price movement. From December 2024 to December 2025, the food-away-from-home CPI rose 4.1%. Full-service meals and snacks rose 4.9%, while limited-service meals and snacks rose 3.3%. Food at employee sites and schools rose 3.8%, and food from vending machines and mobile vendors rose 6.0%. BLS, “Consumer Price Index News Release - 2025 M12 Results”
| Price measure | Increase, December 2024–December 2025 |
|---|---|
| Food away from home | 4.1% |
| Full-service meals and snacks | 4.9% |
| Limited-service meals and snacks | 3.3% |
| Food at employee sites and schools | 3.8% |
| Vending machines and mobile vendors | 6.0% |
The distinction between the annual USDA series and the BLS December-to-December series matters when reviewing budgets. They are related measures with different reporting contexts. The supplied figures support a clear operational signal: restaurant pricing remained under pressure through 2025, and the measured increase was higher for full-service meals and snacks than for limited-service meals and snacks.
Restaurant labor wage benchmarks
Labor is another major restaurant cost category. In May 2024, the median hourly wage for food and beverage serving and related workers was $14.92. Across all food-preparation-and-serving-related occupations, the median was $16.41. The wage figures are occupational benchmarks, not a complete estimate of an employer’s payroll cost. BLS, “Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers: Occupational Outlook Handbook”
The distribution was wide. The lowest-paid 10% of food and beverage serving and related workers earned below $10.88 per hour in May 2024, while the highest-paid 10% earned above $19.65. Food servers working outside restaurants had a $16.57 median hourly wage. Dining-room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers had a $15.71 median.
Several restaurant-facing occupations had lower medians in the same month. Fast-food and counter workers had a $14.65 median hourly wage. Restaurant, lounge, and coffee-shop hosts and hostesses had a $14.61 median. Food services and drinking places paid food-and-beverage serving workers a $14.56 median hourly wage.
Employment of food and beverage serving and related workers is projected to grow 5% from 2024 to 2034. This is a forecast of employment growth, not a forecast of wage growth or of an individual restaurant’s staffing expense.
Payroll earnings by restaurant format
Industry payroll data offers a separate view from occupational wage data. In April 2025, seasonally adjusted average hourly earnings for restaurants and other eating places were $21.02, and average weekly earnings were $563.34. The series describes average earnings for employees in the industry group, so it should not be treated as the median wage for every restaurant worker. BLS, “Table B-3a. Average hourly and weekly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted”
Full-service restaurants recorded seasonally adjusted average hourly earnings of $22.63 and average weekly earnings of $572.54 in April 2025. Limited-service restaurants recorded $18.48 per hour and $467.54 per week. Cafeterias, grill buffets, and buffets recorded average hourly earnings of $19.80.
| Restaurant industry group | Average hourly earnings | Average weekly earnings |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | $21.02 | $563.34 |
| Full-service restaurants | $22.63 | $572.54 |
| Limited-service restaurants | $18.48 | $467.54 |
| Cafeterias, grill buffets, and buffets | $19.80 | Not supplied |
The April 2025 earnings figures are seasonally adjusted. They provide a useful comparison of industry-format averages, but they do not include every cost that an operator bears for labor, and they should not be combined mechanically with the May 2024 occupational medians.
Value added and operating signals
Restaurant cost analysis is not only about the price paid for inputs. The USDA Food Dollar series reported that the food-services industry group supplied 38.6 cents of value added per U.S. food dollar in 2024. Value added is an industry contribution measure; it is not the same as restaurant profit, gross margin, or the share of a customer bill available for operating expenses. USDA ERS, “Food Dollar - Summary Findings”
Taken together, the benchmarks show why restaurant budgeting needs several lenses. Inflation-adjusted foodservice sales reached $1.41 trillion in 2025, but the two principal restaurant formats held different spending shares and different average earnings levels. Food-away-from-home prices rose 3.8% during 2025 on the USDA annual measure, while the BLS December-to-December increase was 4.1%. Full-service meals and snacks recorded a 4.9% CPI increase, compared with 3.3% for limited-service meals and snacks. April 2025 average weekly earnings were $572.54 for full-service restaurants and $467.54 for limited-service restaurants.
For a restaurant operations review, the most relevant comparison is therefore between the local business’s own sales and its measured food, labor, and other operating costs, using the national figures as context. The national statistics establish scale, direction, and format differences; they do not provide a cost ratio for a particular restaurant.