SOC 35-2011.00Bright outlook

    Cooks, Fast Food

    Prepare and cook food in a fast food restaurant with a limited menu.

    Median pay
    $30,890
    Growth
    +0.6%
    Little or no change
    Openings a year
    86,400
    Typical education
    No formal credential

    Data verified Nov 2026 · CollegesRef 2026–27 edition

    Source: BLS 2025 wages · 2025–35 projections

    See the pathway

    Annual pay range

    Lowest 10% earn less than
    $22,580
    Median
    $30,890
    Highest 10% earn more than
    $42,910
    National wages for all workers in this occupation. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.

    641,070 people work in this occupation.

    What cooks, fast food do

    Job Zone 2: Some preparation

    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.

    Usually a high school diploma; some on-the-job training or experience.

    Interest profile

    Realistic (R) · strongest
    89 / 100
    Investigative (I)
    6 / 100
    Artistic (A)
    14 / 100
    Social (S)
    24 / 100
    Enterprising (E)
    39 / 100
    Conventional (C)
    55 / 100
    How strongly each interest area describes the work, from O*NET (scores rescaled to 0–100). The interest code lists the strongest areas in order.

    Interest code RCE. Compare it with yours

    What you'd do

    Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
    71
    Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings
    70
    Getting Information
    69
    Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
    65
    Making Decisions and Solving Problems
    65
    Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
    62
    Handling and Moving Objects
    61
    Processing Information
    61
    Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards
    59
    Performing General Physical Activities
    56
    Work activities rated by importance for this occupation, O*NET (0–100).

    Skills and strengths

    Skills

    • Service Orientation
    • Active Listening
    • Speaking
    • Coordination
    • Reading Comprehension
    • Critical Thinking
    • Monitoring
    • Social Perceptiveness
    • Time Management
    • Judgment and Decision Making

    Knowledge

    • Food Production
    • Customer and Personal Service
    • English Language
    • Production and Processing
    • Administration and Management
    • Mathematics
    • Personnel and Human Resources
    • Transportation
    • Education and Training
    • Public Safety and Security

    Abilities

    • Oral Comprehension
    • Near Vision
    • Arm-Hand Steadiness
    • Information Ordering
    • Manual Dexterity
    • Oral Expression
    • Selective Attention
    • Speech Clarity
    • Speech Recognition
    • Time Sharing

    Work styles

    • Dependability
    • Attention to Detail
    • Stress Tolerance
    • Cooperation
    • Self-Control
    • Optimism
    • Perseverance
    • Integrity
    • Cautiousness
    • Achievement Orientation

    Also called

    Cook · Cook Line Worker · Fast Food Cook · Fast Food Fry Cook · Fast Food Worker · Food Cook · Food Service Cook · Fry Cook · Fryer · Fryline Attendant

    CareerOneStop

    Certifications, licenses and pay by state

    What cooks, fast food may need beyond a degree, where a license is required, and what the work pays in each state.

    Certifications

    Core certifications employers recognise for this work.

    Search all certifications on CareerOneStop

    Licenses by state

    1 state lists a license for this work. Open your state for the license and the agency that issues it.

    Check license requirements on CareerOneStop

    Data from CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor (Employment and Training Administration, with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development). Retrieved November 9, 2026.

    Your plan

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    Courses, majors, colleges, scholarships and a timeline for this career, built from your profile.

    Related careers

    Careers with similar work, interests or skills.

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    Sources and attribution

    Every figure on this page comes from these public datasets. Missing values are shown as not reported, never estimated.

    O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. CollegesRef has modified all or some of this information.

    Data from CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor (Employment and Training Administration, with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development). Retrieved November 9, 2026.

    Page data updated November 5, 2026.