Upscale restaurants often include a dining room manager.
Dining room managers are also known as banquet managers or as food service managers with some acting in the capacity of restaurant manager. These professionals ensure that the restaurant is ready to serve its guests, by overseeing staff and planning schedules. Such managers may inventory food, monitor budgets, balance the books and train staff in customer service. The average salary of dining room managers should correspond with what managers earn.
Average Salaries
The average salary of a food service manager was $52,220 as of May 2010 reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These professionals earned a median salary of $48,130. Those in the 10th percentile earned $30,480 per year and those in the 90th $80,410 on average. The middle 50 percent of such managers earned salaries ranging from about $38,000 to $61,970 per year.
Leading Industries
Approximately two-thirds of food service managers worked for limited-service eating places and full-service restaurants. The former category, including fast food eateries, paid $46,070 per year on average. The latter category, the one most likely to employ dining room managers, paid $54,601 per year. Such establishments included high-end and specialty restaurants offering wait staff service. Drinking establishments paid such professionals $54,410 per year and travel accommodation businesses, including hotels, offered $60,650 on average.
Full Service Restaurants
Pay for dining room managers working in full-service restaurants averaged $54,160, an amount just above the average for all food service managers reports the bureau. Those in the 10th percentile earned $32,570 and those in the 25th percentile earned $40,740 per year on average. The median wage was $51,210 per year. Top annual wages of $64,230 were realized for those in the 75th percentile and $80,840 for those in the 90th percentile.
Job Outlook
The bureau has forecast a 5 percent growth for food service managers through 2018, a rate that is slower than the average for all jobs. Previous experience and a college degree in restaurant management or similar hospitality major can be advantageous for the job seeker at fine dining establishments. These professionals can also find work managing fast food restaurants or head up the food services department of a caterer, hotel or other food service industry establishment.
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