Restaurant Industry Intelligence · Q1 2026

The numbers that
run the restaurant
industry.

Exeter Analytics provides independent financial intelligence, strategic benchmarking, and advisory services for multi-unit restaurant operators, private equity portfolios, and hospitality CFOs navigating a structurally compressed margin environment.

2026 Industry Pulse · Live Benchmarks
March 2026
6–9.5%
Health insurance renewal increase, YoY — worst in 15 years
42%
Operators reporting zero profitability in 2025
75%+
Annual employee turnover rate, industry average
$5,864
Cost to replace one hourly employee (Cornell CHR)
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The 2026 operating
environment, quantified.

Independent analysis of the forces reshaping restaurant economics — from labor and benefits costs to consumer headwinds and margin compression. No sponsored research. No vendor bias.

Recent Intelligence
Benefits & Compensation
February 2026 · 8-min read
Payroll Tax Strategy
February 2026 · 15-min read
9 in 10
Operators call labor, insurance & food "significant challenges" heading into 2026
NRA · Feb 2026
35%
QSR wage increase over four years — the structural shift that's not reversing
BLS / Mercer 2026
$5,864
Cost to replace one hourly restaurant employee, fully loaded
Cornell CHR
7.65%
Employer FICA rate on every dollar of payroll — the most overlooked labor cost
IRS 2026
150%
Turnover rate in high-volume fast food — replacing the entire staff 1.5x per year
Cornell / Turnover Study 2025

"We work with restaurant CFOs, PE operating partners, and franchise executives who need independent analysis — not a vendor pitch."

Exeter Analytics provides the kind of rigorous, data-driven advisory that major consulting firms deliver — focused exclusively on the restaurant and hospitality sector, and structured for the realities of multi-unit operators rather than Fortune 500 corporate clients.

Our work is typically engaged on a project or retainer basis by groups with 200+ employees who are making material decisions about labor, benefits, compensation structure, or capital allocation.

Initial Consultation
Most engagements begin with a 30-minute briefing to assess fit and define scope. No cost, no pitch.
Request a Briefing →
01
Labor Cost Architecture Review
A full-stack analysis of your true labor cost — wages, payroll taxes, benefits, turnover, and recruitment — benchmarked against comparable operators. Identifies where your cost structure diverges from best-in-class and quantifies the dollar impact of closing those gaps.
Multi-unit operatorsPE portfolios
02
Payroll Tax Optimization Analysis
FICA is the second-largest payroll tax burden most operators carry — and the one with the most legal structuring flexibility. We model the full opportunity set available under current IRS guidance, independent of any specific vendor or plan design, and help operators evaluate implementation options with their own legal and HR teams.
CFO advisoryFinance teams
03
Benefits Strategy & Benchmarking
Independent assessment of your current benefits architecture against industry benchmarks for operators of similar size, geography, and workforce composition. Identifies gaps, overspendings, and high-leverage areas where benefit design can simultaneously reduce costs and improve retention outcomes.
HR strategyRetention
04
Margin Intelligence & Operator Benchmarking
Structured analysis of your P&L against comparable public and private operators. Covers food cost, labor, occupancy, and G&A, with specific attention to cost categories where your peer group has demonstrated better outcomes and the mechanism behind those differences.
Financial analysisBenchmarking
05
PE Portfolio Advisory
Dedicated support for private equity operating partners managing restaurant investments. Includes pre-acquisition labor cost diligence, 100-day operational cost review, and ongoing quarterly benchmarking against sector peers. Structured to integrate with your existing portfolio monitoring process.
Private equityOperating partners

Independent research
for serious operators.

Data-driven reports, benchmarks, and frameworks. No sponsored content. No vendor influence. Designed to give restaurant finance teams the same quality of insight that enterprise companies buy from major consulting firms.

New Report
2026 Restaurant Labor Cost Intelligence Report
Full-stack labor cost analysis for multi-unit operators: wages, payroll taxes, benefits, turnover, and the hidden costs most P&Ls don't capture. Includes benchmarks for QSR, fast casual, and full service segments.
Download Report
March 2026 · 28 pages · Executive summary available
Guide
The FICA Opportunity: A CFO's Framework for Evaluating Payroll Tax Reduction Strategies
An objective assessment of the legal mechanisms available under IRS Section 125 and related tax code provisions for reducing employer FICA exposure — what they are, how they work, and what questions operators should ask before implementing any strategy.
Request Guide
February 2026 · 16 pages · Compliance-focused
Benchmark
Restaurant Benefits Benchmark Survey: What 200+ Operators Are Actually Offering Hourly Workers
Survey data from 200+ restaurant operators on health, wellness, supplemental insurance, and financial wellness benefits — what's being offered, enrollment rates, employee satisfaction, and measured impact on retention outcomes.
Request Data
Q4 2025 · Survey data · Segmented by operator size
Analysis
Turnover's True Cost: A Bottom-Up Model for Restaurant Groups
A granular, bottom-up model for calculating the true cost of employee turnover in restaurant operations — not the simplified $X-per-departure figure, but the full loaded cost including downstream productivity loss and guest satisfaction impact.
Download Model
Q3 2025 · Excel model included · Editable for your inputs
Primer
Health Insurance in QSR: Understanding Your Renewal and What You Can Do About It
A plain-language guide for restaurant operators navigating their most expensive benefit line item — what drives renewal increases, how major operators are managing cost, and what alternatives exist that most brokers won't proactively offer.
Download Primer
January 2026 · 10 pages · No financial products promoted
Framework
Franchise Unit Economics 2026: A Diagnostic Framework for Multi-Brand Operators
Structured diagnostic for franchise operators managing multiple brands — how to assess unit-level profitability across concepts, allocate shared G&A, and identify which units and brands are subsidizing underperformers.
Request Framework
Q4 2025 · Applicable to Tier 1–3 franchisees
About Exeter Analytics

Independent intelligence
for the restaurant industry.

Exeter Analytics was founded on a straightforward observation: restaurant operators make billion-dollar decisions about labor, compensation, and benefits using data that is either unavailable, vendor-sponsored, or not specific to their segment of the industry.

We provide the financial intelligence, benchmarking, and advisory work that fills that gap — structured like a consulting engagement, delivered at the pace that operators actually need, and free from the conflicts of interest that compromise most industry research.

Our work has informed benefits strategy, labor cost restructuring, and capital allocation decisions for restaurant groups ranging from 200 to 35,000 employees across QSR, fast casual, and full service segments.

01
No Vendor Sponsorship
Our research is not sponsored by insurance companies, benefit platforms, payroll vendors, or any other product provider. Our conclusions follow the data, not the revenue model.
02
Restaurant-Specific Focus
We work exclusively in the restaurant and hospitality sector. Our benchmarks, models, and advisory frameworks are built from restaurant data — not adapted from general industry research.
03
CFO-Grade Analysis
Our work is designed for finance professionals, not marketing audiences. We quantify rigorously, source transparently, and present conclusions with the appropriate level of uncertainty rather than false precision.
04
Confidential & Proprietary
Client engagements are fully confidential. Survey data is aggregated and anonymized. We do not share client information or use client data in public research without explicit permission.

Start with
a briefing.

Most engagements begin with a 30-minute discovery call to determine fit and scope. No cost, no obligation, no pitch until you've seen the data.

We respond within one business day. All inquiries are confidential.