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Cooks, Fast Food: Career Profile

Prepare and cook food in a fast food restaurant with a limited menu. Duties of these cooks are limited to preparation of a few basic items and normally involve operating large-volume single-purpose cooking equipment.

What Tasks Do Cooks, Fast Food Perform?

The day-to-day responsibilities of cooks, fast food span:

• Order and take delivery of supplies.
• Cook the exact number of items ordered by each customer, working on several different orders simultaneously.
• Prepare specialty foods, such as pizzas, fish and chips, sandwiches, or tacos, following specific methods that usually require short preparation time.
• Operate large-volume cooking equipment, such as grills, deep-fat fryers, or griddles.
• Wash, cut, and prepare foods designated for cooking.
• Prepare and serve beverages, such as coffee or fountain drinks.
• Clean food preparation areas, cooking surfaces, and utensils.
• Read food order slips or receive verbal instructions as to food required by patron, and prepare and cook food according to instructions.

Key Skills and Knowledge

Top cooks, fast food draw on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Key Skills

These are the skills most important for this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Knowledge Areas

Other Cooks, Fast Food Job Titles

Common job titles for this role include:

• Cook
• Deep Fat Fryer Operator
• Fast Food Cook
• Fast Food Fry Cook
• Fast Food Worker
• Food Service Cook
• Fry Cook
• Fryer

Employment and Demand

The U.S. employs around 1,965,721 cooks, fast food working in the United States today. Demand is forecast to grow by +0.5% over the projection horizon.

How Much Do Cooks, Fast Food Make?

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$24,489
Hourly median	$11.77
10th percentile	$20,000
25th percentile	$22,000
75th percentile	$29,658
90th percentile	$34,827

Compensation varies based on experience, location, and industry.

Pay by State

State	Annual median salary
Hawaii	$40,300
District of Columbia	$38,350
New Hampshire	$37,220
Massachusetts	$37,100
Vermont	$37,050
Oregon	$37,020
Washington	$36,800
California	$36,410
Alaska	$35,820
Maine	$35,780
Rhode Island	$35,600
Colorado	$35,140
New York	$34,160
New Jersey	$33,930
Connecticut	$33,760
Nevada	$32,690
Wyoming	$32,190
Maryland	$31,770
Illinois	$31,580
Arizona	$31,090
Minnesota	$30,810
South Dakota	$30,640
Utah	$29,960
Missouri	$29,450
North Dakota	$29,350
Michigan	$29,340
Nebraska	$29,210
Delaware	$28,950
Florida	$28,940
New Mexico	$28,830
Iowa	$28,770
Virginia	$28,660
Indiana	$28,610
Wisconsin	$28,400
Kansas	$28,100
Tennessee	$28,010
Oklahoma	$27,500
Pennsylvania	$27,440
North Carolina	$26,750
Alabama	$26,690
Ohio	$26,520
Georgia	$26,470
Montana	$26,260
Idaho	$26,130
Arkansas	$24,700
Texas	$24,390
South Carolina	$23,930
Kentucky	$23,420
West Virginia	$22,800
Mississippi	$22,250
Guam	$22,100
Louisiana	$21,940
Puerto Rico	$21,300

Top-Paying U.S. Regions

Pay for cooks, fast food vary by region. These regions lead on median pay:

Region	Median annual wage	Share of U.S. jobs	Location quotient
Far Western US	$36,303	23.8%	1.61
New England	$36,018	2.1%	0.55
Middle Atlantic	$32,221	7.7%	0.55
Rocky Mountains	$31,876	2.9%	0.74
Plains States	$29,505	10.7%	3.20
Great Lakes	$29,122	8.3%	0.59
Southwest	$26,530	8.1%	0.73
Southeast	$26,191	35.6%	2.77

Where the Jobs Cluster

Metro area	State	Median annual wage	Employment
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	CA	$41,980	10,540
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	CA	$41,800	4,560
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	OR	$40,580	2,580
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	CA	$39,260	1,120
Napa, CA	CA	$39,210	360
Vallejo, CA	CA	$39,110	1,250
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	WA	$38,830	4,380
Urban Honolulu, HI	HI	$38,250	640

Industry Breakdown

The largest employers of cooks, fast food are concentrated in the following sectors:

Industry	Employment	Median annual wage
Accommodation and Food Services	647,470	$30,140
Retail Trade	14,500	$30,730
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	2,490	$34,320
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services	1,230	$33,280
Manufacturing	910	$36,180
Wholesale Trade	370	$31,650
Educational Services	270	$37,030
Health Care and Social Assistance	180	$31,690

Cooks, Fast Food work in the following industries:

Software Cooks, Fast Food Use

• Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (hot technology)
• Electronic mail software: Microsoft Outlook (hot technology)
• Word processing software: Microsoft Word (hot technology)

Work Environment

The on-the-job environment of cooks, fast food tends to involve the following characteristics:

• Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams
• Spend Time Standing
• Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
• Consequence of Error
• Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team

Getting Started in This Career

Most cooks, fast food positions require a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. This occupation sits in Some Preparation Needed (Job Zone 2), reflecting the level of preparation typically expected.

Related Careers

Similar Occupations

• Food Service Managers (Supplemental)
• Chefs and Head Cooks (Supplemental)
• Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria (Primary-Short)
• Cooks, Private Household (Supplemental)
• Cooks, Restaurant (Primary-Short)
• Cooks, Short Order (Primary-Short)
• Food Preparation Workers (Primary-Short)
• Fast Food and Counter Workers (Primary-Long)

Sources

Data on this page comes from the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 35-2011.00 (Cooks, Fast Food).