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Pay · 35-3023

Fast Food and Counter Workers earn $31,200 a year at the midpoint

Starting pay is close to the middle here: the 25th percentile is $27,700 against a median of $31,200, so the first years are not a long climb.

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$31,200median a year · United States
$15.00an hour $32,150average 3,854,050people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$27,70025th $31,200median $36,07075th
$22,84010th percentile $42,65090th percentile
$27,700a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$42,280best-paying state · California
$22,610lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+36%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $27,700, is within 11% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $42,280 in California and $22,610 in Mississippi — a gap of $19,670 a year.

Fast food and counter worker earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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When they ask “What are your salary expectations?”

An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Ranked 787 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 0% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 785 Amusement and Recreation Attendants $32,150
  2. 786 Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop $31,200
  3. 787 Fast Food and Counter Workers $31,200
  4. 788 Cooks, Fast Food $30,890

Fast food and counter worker pay rate, hourly and yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$31,200a year

A resume for fast food and counter workers

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Food safetyOrder accuracyCash handlingDrive-through serviceGrill and fryer stationsTemperature logsAllergen procedureStock rotation
  • Held the pass at peak so orders left complete rather than fast and wrong.
  • Kept temperature and holding logs through the shift, pulling product that timed out.
  • Ran the close-down clean including fryer filtration and surface sanitising.

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Fast food and counter worker wages across the states

The 39 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.87 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $42,280 $35,530 $35,530 — $47,950 449,840
Washington $37,710 $35,050 $35,050 — $47,860 94,710
Colorado $36,270 $31,040 $31,040 — $44,100 82,010
Massachusetts $35,850 $31,290 $31,290 — $38,700 85,810
Connecticut $35,380 $34,010 $34,010 — $39,660 35,720
Hawaii $35,250 $29,120 $29,120 — $45,140 24,130
New York $35,250 $32,240 $32,240 — $44,740 168,620
Oregon $35,050 $30,950 $30,950 — $44,370 59,920
Arizona $34,230 $30,760 $30,760 — $43,990 77,210
New Jersey $34,150 $32,220 $32,220 — $39,130 93,730
Illinois $33,910 $31,200 $31,200 — $37,330 127,590
Maryland $33,660 $31,200 $31,200 — $37,390 49,380
Nevada $31,950 $26,630 $26,630 — $42,860 45,850
Minnesota $31,370 $28,190 $28,190 — $37,140 58,970
Missouri $30,390 $28,600 $28,600 — $36,830 29,360
Virginia $30,110 $27,130 $27,130 — $37,550 104,460
Florida $29,080 $27,570 $27,570 — $36,430 235,400
Nebraska $29,000 $28,080 $28,080 — $35,760 30,060
Idaho $28,940 $20,130 $20,130 — $36,330 25,810
Michigan $28,930 $25,960 $25,960 — $35,970 103,130
Indiana $28,790 $22,110 $22,110 — $35,820 97,290
New Mexico $28,700 $26,670 $26,670 — $36,360 28,250
Utah $28,670 $21,980 $21,980 — $36,670 52,340
Wisconsin $28,600 $22,240 $22,240 — $36,090 67,750
North Carolina $28,570 $21,800 $21,800 — $36,820 92,230
Pennsylvania $28,570 $22,030 $22,030 — $35,880 142,220
Ohio $28,430 $23,200 $23,200 — $34,920 163,560
Iowa $28,390 $21,620 $21,620 — $35,990 40,290
Texas $27,740 $21,710 $21,710 — $35,680 460,530
Kansas $27,580 $21,620 $21,620 — $34,280 47,140
South Carolina $27,520 $22,340 $22,340 — $35,020 65,070
Tennessee $27,470 $21,850 $21,850 — $35,060 90,690
Kentucky $27,130 $21,590 $21,590 — $34,420 41,860
Georgia $26,920 $20,910 $20,910 — $36,110 145,030
Arkansas $26,250 $23,240 $23,240 — $32,120 35,660
Alabama $23,700 $21,080 $21,080 — $32,740 41,460
Oklahoma $23,430 $20,510 $20,510 — $30,300 52,520
Louisiana $22,800 $18,610 $18,610 — $33,320 45,720
Mississippi $22,610 $18,530 $18,530 — $29,090 31,220

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of job.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Nearby work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Fast Food and Counter Workers$31,200
Food Servers, Nonrestaurant$35,360+$4,160 Waiters and waitresses$35,230+$4,030 Bartenders$34,340+$3,140

Questions people ask most

What is a fast food and counter worker’s yearly income?

A fast food and counter worker makes a median of $31,200 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $27,700 and $36,070.

What is a fast food and counter worker’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $15.00 an hour; the average is $32,150 a year.

What is the starting pay for a fast food and counter worker?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $27,700 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $22,840.

Which state pays fast food and counter workers the most?

California, with a median of $42,280 a year.

How many people work as fast food and counter workers?

About 3,854,050 in the United States — number 787 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays about the same

Median pay within $950 of what fast food and counter workers earn — $31,200 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations