Chalkboard Menu Labor Cost: What a Year of Redos Costs

A chalkboard tap list that gets a full redo every day costs about $3,285 to $4,380 a year in wages, if each redo takes 30 to 40 minutes and the person doing it earns $18 an hour.

The math behind that range comes first, then a one-week timing log and a worksheet for your own number, the printed menu costs that sit on top, and how monthly and annual billing compare if you move the list to screens.

How much does a daily chalkboard redo cost in wages?

A daily redo of 30 to 40 minutes at $18 an hour costs $3,285 to $4,380 a year for one board at one location. The math is minutes divided by 60, times the hourly rate, times 365 days:

The $18 is an input, so swap in your own rate. For reference, the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median bartender wage at $16.51 an hour in May 2025, and BLS says that figure includes tips.

The range also assumes one full redo a day and no spot fixes. Your bar may rewrite less often than that, or patch the board five times a night, and a timed week tells you which.

What counts as board time?

Board time is every paid minute it takes to keep the board right, and the writing is only part of it. Count all of this:

• Full redos, from the first wipe to the last line straightened and spell checked.
• Spot fixes. A keg kicks, a new beer goes on, or a price changes, and someone erases one line and squeezes the new one into the space the old one left.
• Getting the board ready and putting it away: finding the step stool, finding markers that still work, wiping chalk dust off the backbar.
• Waiting on handwriting. If only one person on staff letters well enough for the board, the board waits for their shift. If that person is the manager, you pay a manager's rate for lettering.
• Every board in the building. A main tap board, a growler counter board and a patio board are three lines on the worksheet, each timed on its own.

Leave out anything that isn't labor. Printing and laminating get their own lines in the paper section below.

Guest-side costs stay out too, such as the pour you comp because the board listed a beer that kicked an hour ago. Those belong on an incident tally like the one in what an outdated beer menu costs a bar, so nothing gets counted twice.

How do I time a week of board work?

Time one ordinary week with a clock, starting when the chalk comes out and stopping when the step stool is back in the closet. Log all 7 days:

Pick a normal week, not the week of a big release or a slow holiday. If your rotation speeds up in summer, time a second week then.

If you aren't sure how often the list should change in the first place, read how often to update your tap list before you pick the week.

How do I turn a week of minutes into a yearly cost?

Multiply your weekly board minutes by the hourly rate, divide by 60, and multiply by 52. The worksheet breaks that into lines:

A. Average minutes per full redo:                    ______
B. Full redos per week:                              ______
C. Minutes of spot fixes per week:                   ______
D. Weekly board minutes = (A x B) + C:               ______
E. Hourly rate of whoever does it:                  $______
F. Weekly board cost = D / 60 x E:                  $______
G. Yearly board cost = F x 52:                      $______
H. Number of boards (if you timed only one):         ______
I. Yearly cost for all boards = G x H:              $______

To check your arithmetic, run a 40 minute daily redo at $18 an hour through it:

A = 40 minutes, B = 7 redos, C = 0 minutes, E = $18
D = (40 x 7) + 0 = 280 minutes a week
F = 280 / 60 x $18 = $84 a week
G = $84 x 52 = $4,368 a year

That lands $12 under the $4,380 standing math because 52 weeks is 364 days. The 30 minute version comes to $63 a week and $3,276 a year.

Line E needs care in three cases:

• If different people do the board, work out line F for each person's minutes at their own rate and add the results.
• If board minutes push someone past 40 hours in a week, use the overtime rate. The U.S. Department of Labor says covered employees who aren't exempt get at least time and one-half their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, so $18 an hour becomes at least $27.
• For someone on a tipped wage, use the hourly rate you pay them, not what they take home. Tips come from guests, so the board minutes cost you what's on your payroll.

What does a printed beer menu add to the cost?

A printed beer list adds the cost of every reprint on top of the board, because each lineup change makes the copies on the tables wrong. Fill it in from your own bills:

J. Design cost per reprint (your designer's charge, or
   your design minutes / 60 x the rate you pay):    $______
K. Print cost per reprint:                          $______
L. Laminate cost per reprint:                       $______
M. Cost per reprint = J + K + L:                    $______
N. Reprints per year:                                ______
O. Yearly paper cost = M x N:                       $______

For line N, count every change that makes the printed menu wrong: a new beer on a tap, a price change, a pour added or dropped.

Say a 12 tap taproom, over two weeks, swaps one IPA for another on tap 6, replaces the cider on tap 11, and moves a 10 oz pour from $4 to $5 when a costlier keg goes on. That's 3 reprints in two weeks, or 3 x line M.

For a full yearly total, add line O to line I. Count each paid minute once: if line J includes design minutes from the same person whose board time is already in line I, take those minutes out of J first.

Where does the board number usually go wrong?

The board number usually comes out low, because a few costs hide inside the shift. These are the ones people miss:

• The redo happens during service. When a bartender leaves the rail to fix the board, you pay their wage and run a pourer short at the same time. The wage goes on this sheet; the lost service belongs on a service tally. The routine for a keg that kicks mid-shift covers who does what in that moment.
• The wrong person does it. A manager who takes the job because they letter faster costs more per minute than a barback working from a template.
• Nobody owns it. When whoever notices fixes the board, minutes get spent twice or not at all. Naming the tap list owner on the shift handoff card puts one person on it each shift.
• There are several locations. Each location has its own boards and its own minutes, so run the sheet per location and add them up.

What can I do once I have the number?

Once the yearly number is on paper, you can keep the chalkboard, shorten the redo, or move the list to screens and run the sheet again.

Keep the chalkboard

If your yearly number is small, or the hand-lettered board is part of why people come in, keep it. You know what it costs now, and that can be a fair price for a look you want.

Make the redo shorter

Split the board into a fixed part and a rotating part. Paint or vinyl the house beers that never change, and chalk only the rotators.

Or give every tap its own removable strip, so a kicked keg means swapping one strip instead of rewriting a panel. Then time another week and see what moved on lines A and C.

Move the list to screens and rerun the sheet

A digital board doesn't take board time to zero. Someone still changes a line when a keg kicks, but the full rewrite goes away.

In TapDisplay you change the line from a phone, a tablet or a computer, and every connected screen checks for changes every 30 seconds. You can see what the board shows on each tap line.

A kicked keg stays on the board, struck through and labeled KICKED. The business type sets that word, so a coffee or wine menu says SOLD OUT instead.

For a fair comparison, put your own estimate of edit minutes into lines A and C, run the sheet again, and subtract the result from your chalkboard total. Hold that difference against the plan cost in the next section.

If you decide to switch, the chalkboard to digital cutover week plan walks through the move itself.

Should I pay monthly or annually for tap list software?

For TapDisplay at one location, paying annually costs $499 a year and paying monthly costs $49 x 12 = $588, so annual saves $89 if the board runs all 12 months.

At 3 to 9 locations, every location bills at $39 a month or $399 a year. At 10 or more, you talk to us. The full rates are on the pricing page.

The $468 is $39 x 12, which is $69 a location more than $399.

Count locations, not screens. Screens are unlimited at each location, so a second TV by the growler counter or a third over the patio door changes nothing in this table.

Where is the break-even month?

At both rates, the annual price falls between 10 and 11 monthly payments:

$49 x 10 = $490   under $499
$49 x 11 = $539   over $499
$39 x 10 = $390   under $399
$39 x 11 = $429   over $399

If the board will run at least 11 of the next 12 months, annual costs less. If you might stop sooner, say a lease ends in spring, run the months you expect on both plans before you choose.

You pick one billing interval for the whole account, so every location is monthly or every location is annual, and the choice has to suit all of them.

This math covers price only. Read the plan terms for what happens if a location closes partway through a year. Whichever interval you pick, the account gets one 14 day free trial, and checkout takes a card up front.

The bottom line

A full chalkboard redo every day, at 30 to 40 minutes and $18 an hour, costs $3,285 to $4,380 a year in wages for one board, before spot fixes, extra boards or paper. A timed week run through the worksheet replaces that estimate with your own number. On the software side, annual billing comes out ahead of monthly only when the board runs 11 or more months of the year.