12 Ways to Reduce Labour Costs in a Café Without Cutting Service
30 October 2026 · The Rosterly team · 4 min read
To reduce labour costs in a café without cutting service, roster to your real busy periods, trim the quiet hours before and after the rush, cross-train so fewer people cover more jobs, and check worked hours against the roster every week. Most cafés find savings in a few shifts that start too early or finish too late, not in cutting staff.
Labour is usually a café's biggest controllable cost. Penalty rates on weekends and public holidays, super on top of wages and a handful of shifts that run long add up quickly. Here are twelve ways to bring it down, starting with the ones that don't touch the customer at all.
First, measure it properly
Before cutting anything, know your number. Labour cost percentage is total labour cost divided by sales, times 100, and total labour cost includes on-costs: in Australia, super at 12% of ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025, plus payroll tax and workers' compensation where they apply. Our true labour cost post walks through a café example, and the labour cost percentage guide has a calculator.
Roster changes that don't touch service
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1. Roster to demand, not habit. Look at sales by hour for four weeks. Many cafés staff 7am like 9am because "we always have".
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2. Trim the dead zones. The hour after lunch and the last hour before close often carry an extra person. Ending one shift at 2pm instead of 3pm, five days a week, saves 260 hours a year.
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3. Stagger starts. Instead of three people starting at 6:30, start one at 6:30 to open, one at 7 and one at 7:30 as the rush builds.
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4. Watch weekend and public holiday hours. Penalty rates make those hours dearer. The Fair Work Ombudsman's penalty rates guidance explains when higher rates apply. Put your most efficient crew on, and avoid padding.
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5. Use your sales per labour hour. Dividing sales by hours worked for each block shows where you're overstaffed. Our sales per labour hour post explains the method.
People changes
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6. Cross-train. A barista who can also run the register means fewer people on at quiet times. It also makes sick days cheaper to cover.
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7. Give part-timers their hours first. Topping up regular staff before adding casual shifts keeps skills high and minimum engagement costs down. Casual minimums vary by award: the Fair Work Ombudsman notes the Retail Award's casual minimum daily engagement, and hospitality awards set their own.
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8. Keep a cover list. Know who wants extra hours before someone calls in sick, so you aren't paying a premium for last-minute cover.
Hours and timesheet changes
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9. Compare rostered and worked hours. Early clock-ins and late clock-outs of 10 minutes a shift add up across a team. Approve timesheets weekly, not at payroll.
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10. Handle unpaid breaks properly. If breaks are unpaid under the award or contract, make sure they come off paid time, consistently, for everyone.
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11. Stop paying for admin time twice. If a manager spends two hours a week fixing the roster and retyping hours, that's labour too.
Menu and process changes
12. Prep in quiet hours. Move prep, cleaning and stock jobs to the slow blocks you're already paying for, so the rush crew only serves.
Trim the quiet hours in Rosterly
Copy last week, adjust the dead zones and check worked hours against the roster. 14-day free trial, no card needed.
Minimum crew. You always need someone to open, someone on the register and anyone required for safety.
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Training. A trained barista is faster and wastes less.
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The rush. Short-staffing your busiest hour loses sales and tips, and tired staff leave.
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Award entitlements. Penalty rates, breaks and minimum engagements aren't optional. Check the award that applies.
A worked example
A café with sales of A$18,000 a week and wages of A$4,500 (plus 12% super, A$540) runs at 28% labour cost. Three changes are applied:
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each weekday closing shift ends an hour earlier: 5 hours × A$32 = A$160
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one Saturday shift is shortened by 2 hours: 2 × A$40 = A$80
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one Sunday shift is shortened by 2 hours: 2 × A$45 = A$90
That saves A$330 in wages a week, plus super, about A$370 in total. Labour cost drops to about 25.9% without touching the morning rush. The hourly rates here are illustrative; use your own.
How Rosterly helps
Rosterly gives you the hours side of the picture:
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rosters by day, copied forward from last week, so changes stick
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the time clock with unpaid breaks removed automatically
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approved hours side by side with the roster
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a CSV export for payroll
It doesn't calculate award rates or penalty rates; your payroll applies those. See rostering for cafés for a typical café week.