Fast Food and Counter Workers Average Salary in Texas
$27,750 average · $27,750 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 35-3023What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Texas, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Geographic minimum wages and franchise vs. corporate ownership explain most of the state variation. Shift lead and assistant manager differentials are the first meaningful raises inside the brand. Institutional and hospital food service often beats QSR on benefits even when base wages look similar.
How much do Fast Food and Counter Workers make in Texas?
The average fast food and counter workers salary in Texas is $27,750 per year. That works out to about $13.34 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 460,530 fast food and counter workers jobs in Texas.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $27,750. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $27,750; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $27,750 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Fast Food and Counter Workers Careers Are Structured
Fast food and counter workers prepare and serve limited-menu food in QSR, cafeterias, and counter-service formats. It is among the largest youth and first-job occupations in the country, with high turnover and schedule-driven hours.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how fast food and counter workers pay is distributed in Texas specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Geographic minimum wages and franchise vs. corporate ownership explain most of the state variation. Shift lead and assistant manager differentials are the first meaningful raises inside the brand. Institutional and hospital food service often beats QSR on benefits even when base wages look similar.
Entry is immediate. The realistic upgrades are supervision within food service, moves into institutional kitchens, or lateral transfers into retail and customer service with stronger mid-career distributions. Use the percentile chart to see how compressed the floor is — and how much the first supervisory step matters.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Fast Food and Counter Workers Do?
Fast Food and Counter Workers positions belong to the fast food and counter workers field. Fast food and counter workers prepare and serve limited-menu food in QSR, cafeterias, and counter-service formats. It is among the largest youth and first-job occupations in the country, with high turnover and schedule-driven hours.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 35-3023
Fast Food and Counter Workers pay in Texas
In Texas, fast food and counter workers report a median of $27,750 (about $13.34/hour) across roughly 460,530 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $27,750 at the 10th percentile to $27,750 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons Texas wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in Texas
Prices in Texas run 3% below the national average (RPP 97.1). So a nominal salary of $27,750 has the buying power of about $28,591 in national terms.
Texas vs. United States for Fast Food and Counter Workers
The median fast food and counter workers salary in Texas is $27,750, which is -12.7% below the national median of $31,790 (mean pay is -13.9% below the U.S. mean of $32,226). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, Texas ranks #41 by median wage for this occupation. Texas accounts for about 2.3% of U.S. fast food and counter workers employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Texas of $27,750 falls in the Low-income band of this framework - roughly ~18% of the U.S. population and ~25% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Fast Food and Counter Workers
| $35,622 | $35,459 | $17 | 452,680 | |
| $35,577 | $35,640 | $17 | 254,340 | |
SOC: 445000 | $34,400 | $34,720 | $17 | 134,820 |
| $31,770 | $30,757 | $15 | 10,068,420 |
Related Occupations
SOC: 43-4051 • 77% match | $46,601 | $46,590 | $22 | 13,746,580 |
SOC: 35-3031 • 78% match | $40,070 | $40,060 | $19 | 13,138,520 |
SOC: 53-7065 • 79% match | $39,579 | $39,440 | $19 | 14,316,800 |
SOC: 41-2031 • 84% match | $37,302 | $37,310 | $18 | 19,723,450 |
| Find Occupation 41 2031 Jobs | ||||
SOC: 31-1120 • 87% match | $36,156 | $36,010 | $17 | 48,535,960 |
| $33,202 | $33,180 | $16 | 15,770,510 | |
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Fast Food And Counter Workers in Other States
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