Cooks, Fast Food Salary

It’s a stretch — at the median salary of $35K, rent takes 59.5% of take-home pay. A 2-bedroom at the HUD Fair Market Rent runs $1,407/month. The 30% guideline puts the comfortable ceiling at roughly $700/month in rent — so roommates or a 1-bedroom would ease the math significantly.

The 10th-percentile wage — what new cooks, fast foods typically earn — is $31K/year. Take-home on that works out to about $1,872/month. At HUD’s $1,407/month FMR, rent would take 75% of that take-home — above the 30% guideline, so a 1-bedroom or shared housing is likely necessary starting out.

Local pay is 13% above the national median — $35K here vs. $31K nationally.

Illinois pays $35K median vs. the U.S. average of $31K — that’s +13%. After adjusting for local cost of living (RPP 93.85), the purchasing-power equivalent is $37K — still ahead of the national median.

The median is $34,960 a year, that works out to about $17 an hour. But the range is wide: entry-level workers start around $31,200, and experienced cooks, fast foods can clear $40,580. These are BLS numbers, based on employer-reported data, not self-reported surveys.

On that salary, you'd take home roughly $2,366/month after taxes. A 2-bedroom here rents for about $1,407/month, which eats 59.5% of your paycheck. That's above the 30% rule of thumb, housing will be a stretch at the median salary, though you can manage with roommates or a smaller place.

Illinois has a Regional Price Parity of 93.85 (100 is the national average). That's below average, your money stretches further here than the raw salary number suggests. After cost-of-living adjustment, the median cooks, fast food salary is worth about $37,251 in national-average purchasing power.

The table above ranks every state by median pay for this role. Keep in mind that the highest-paying states tend to have the highest costs of living, so the top salary doesn't always mean the most money in your pocket.