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The differences between restaurant managers and shift lead managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a restaurant manager and a shift lead manager. Additionally, a restaurant manager has an average salary of $52,202, which is higher than the $34,547 average annual salary of a shift lead manager.
The top three skills for a restaurant manager include customer service, guest satisfaction and food handling. The most important skills for a shift lead manager are math, management, and food safety.
| Restaurant Manager | Shift Lead Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $52,202 | $34,547 |
| Hourly rate | $25.10 | $16.61 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 225,340 | 274,021 |
| Job satisfaction | 1 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | High School Diploma, 36% |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A restaurant manager is responsible for handling the overall restaurant operations. These include monitoring revenues and daily restaurant sales, checking inventories and supplies, negotiating with third-party vendors, and managing customers' inquiries and complaints. Other duties include creating promotional offers, developing and improving sales strategies, organizing staff duties, maintaining the highest sanitary standards for everyone's strict compliance, and controlling operational expenses. A restaurant manager must have excellent communication and leadership skills and exceptional knowledge of food industry management.
A shift lead manager is an employee who is responsible for supervising the daily activities of a store, particularly in creating schedules and assigning them to staff members. Shift lead managers are required to monitor the team's performance and manage the requests of employees. They must open registers and close them by the end of the day and prepare cash to be deposited. Shift lead managers are also required to handle customer issues and report them to the management during the shift.
Restaurant managers and shift lead managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Restaurant Manager | Shift Lead Manager | |
| Average salary | $52,202 | $34,547 |
| Salary range | Between $39,000 And $69,000 | Between $26,000 And $44,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | - |
| Highest paying state | New Hampshire | - |
| Best paying company | Hillstone Restaurant Group | - |
| Best paying industry | Hospitality | - |
There are a few differences between a restaurant manager and a shift lead manager in terms of educational background:
| Restaurant Manager | Shift Lead Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | High School Diploma, 36% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Cornell University | Cornell University |
Here are the differences between restaurant managers' and shift lead managers' demographics:
| Restaurant Manager | Shift Lead Manager | |
| Average age | 39 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.5% Female, 45.5% | Male, 44.3% Female, 55.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 17.9% Asian, 9.4% White, 55.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% | Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 18.2% Asian, 8.1% White, 57.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 10% | 10% |