Cooks, Fast Food
United States. Estimated employment 641,070, with pages for 38 metro areas below.
Data released May 2025
BLS OEWS · SOC 35-2011
Fig. 1 — The wage rule
Where you sit in the distribution
Drag the marker, or type a figure
$30,890 · 50th
$22,58010th
$27,26025th
$30,89050th
$37,26075th
$42,91090th
That is the median — half of people in this occupation in the US earn more.
Table 1 — By metro area
Where it pays
Every published Cooks, Fast Food page, by median pay. Employment is the BLS estimate for the metro.
| Metro area | Median | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose, CA | $47,220 | 4,790 |
| San Francisco, CA | $46,670 | 10,160 |
| Napa, CA | $45,300 | 370 |
| Vallejo, CA | $44,450 | 1,150 |
| Santa Rosa, CA | $43,840 | 1,050 |
| Santa Cruz, CA | $43,630 | 710 |
| Salinas, CA | $43,120 | 1,100 |
| Santa Maria, CA | $42,700 | 1,430 |
| Riverside, CA | $42,480 | 16,910 |
| San Diego, CA | $42,450 | 10,630 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $38,000 | 48,440 |
| Washington, DC | $35,800 | 10,580 |
| New York, NY | $35,780 | 10,410 |
| Chicago, IL | $35,360 | 10,460 |
| Syracuse, NY | $34,490 | 330 |
| Buffalo, NY | $33,690 | 600 |
| Rockford, IL | $33,380 | 310 |
| Rochester, NY | $33,380 | 920 |
| Utica, NY | $33,100 | 150 |
| Champaign, IL | $32,840 | 230 |
| Peoria, IL | $32,340 | 340 |
| Bloomington, IL | $31,430 | 170 |
| St. Louis, MO | $30,860 | 17,700 |
| Kansas City, MO | $30,170 | 13,850 |
| St. Joseph, MO | $29,620 | 1,020 |
| Springfield, MO | $29,190 | 4,880 |
| Durham, NC | $29,190 | 4,520 |
| Columbia, MO | $29,110 | 2,470 |
| Cape Girardeau, MO | $28,820 | 1,070 |
| Jefferson City, MO | $28,600 | 1,320 |
| Joplin, MO | $28,600 | 2,030 |
| Raleigh, NC | $28,220 | 11,500 |
| Asheville, NC | $28,120 | 2,570 |
| Greensboro, NC | $27,880 | 6,850 |
| Charlotte, NC | $27,690 | 15,830 |
| Hickory, NC | $27,550 | 2,650 |
| Wilmington, NC | $27,500 | 3,880 |
| Burlington, NC | $27,450 | 1,680 |
Sources
How this page was made
- Wage data
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
- Employment
- 641,070 employed in this occupation nationally (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
- Occupation
- SOC 35-2011, Cooks, Fast Food. Mapped to our taxonomy as cooks-fast-food.
Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.