What Fast Food and Counter Workers earn in Polk County, FL
The median pay for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL is $28,050 per year, which works out to $13.49 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metropolitan area, the labor market that Polk County, FL belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $29,540, which is 5.3% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,380 people working in this occupation across the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Polk County, FL has roughly 790,694 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Fast Food and Counter Workers in the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $27,060 a year ($13.01 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $34,630 or more ($16.65 an hour). That is a gap of $7,570 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $27,490 at the 25th percentile and $29,500 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.3 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL is $13.49. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $28,050, and the same salary is $2,338 a month before taxes or about $1,079 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $11.86 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Fast Food and Counter Workers
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Fast Food and Counter Workers this way: "Perform duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages. Serve customers at counter or from a steam table. May take payment. May prepare food and beverages."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Communicate with customers regarding orders, comments, and complaints"; "Accept payment from customers, and make change as necessary"; "Scrub and polish counters, steam tables, and other equipment, and clean glasses, dishes, and fountain equipment"; "Perform cleaning duties, such as sweeping, mopping, and washing dishes, to keep equipment and facilities sanitary".
Job outlook for Fast Food and Counter Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 3,855,900 jobs in 2025 to 4,079,100 in 2035, a change of +5.8%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 827,400 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 21.5% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: no formal educational credential. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $31,200 for this occupation; the Polk County, FL median of $28,050 is 10.1% below it.
How pay in Polk County, FL compares
Compared with the Florida average
The local median of $28,050 sits below the Florida employment-weighted average of $29,062. The shortfall is $1,012 a year, or 3.5%, so Polk County, FL is a lower-paying market for this job than the state as a whole. Within Florida, the highest median we track for this job is $30,000 in Sarasota County, FL.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Fast Food and Counter Workers is $31,431 across the contiguous United States. At $28,050, Polk County, FL pays $3,381 less, which is 10.8% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Polk County, FL
Among the 393 occupations with published wages in Polk County, FL, Fast Food and Counter Workers ranks number 391 by median pay, ahead of about 1% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers at $57,090 a year, which is $29,040 more than the median for Fast Food and Counter Workers.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $28,050 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $3,383 a year, which leaves $24,667, or $2,056 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $12 goes to taxes and $88 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 12.1%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $12,300. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $1,238, an effective 4.4% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $1,739 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $407. FICA totals $2,146, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Florida
There is no state income tax on wages in Florida, which means Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL keep the full $24,667 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,403 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $117 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Polk County, FL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Polk County, FL show an average adjusted gross income of $64,078 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 10.6% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.4%, compared with the 4.4% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Polk County, FL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Polk County, FL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $24,667 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Polk County, FL is $1,338 a month, or $16,056 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,608 a month. For Fast Food and Counter Workers, a one-bedroom absorbs 65.1% of take-home pay and 57.2% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 12.2% of gross pay for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Florida residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,494 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $1,005, for $2,498 in total. Gasoline in Florida averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,427.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $23,418 a year, 95% of take-home pay. That leaves $1,249 a year, or $104 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 4.5% of gross pay, a thin cushion that one unexpected expense could erase.
Local housing and commute data for Polk County, FL
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Polk County, FL: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Polk County, FL, set beside the Florida and national medians.
Property taxes in Polk County, FL
Homeowners in Polk County, FL pay a median of $1,933 a year in real estate taxes, 29% below the Florida median of $2,730 and 38% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $266,500, the median tax bill is 0.73% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Fast Food and Counter Workers median of $28,050, a tax bill of that size would equal 6.9% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Polk County, FL
Renters in Polk County, FL pay a median gross rent of $1,363 a month in the Census survey, 18% below the Florida median of $1,669. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,338 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $266,500, 26% below the Florida median of $359,000. Median household income is $65,978, 12% below the Florida median of $74,568, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 24.3% of that income.
Commuting in Polk County, FL
Workers in Polk County, FL who travel to a workplace spend an average of 30.5 minutes each way, 9% above the Florida average of 28.0. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.1 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 12.4% of workers in Polk County, FL work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Fast Food and Counter Workers afford to live in Polk County, FL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $28,050 that ceiling is $701 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,338 is $637 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $25.73 an hour; the median for Fast Food and Counter Workers is $13.49, which is 48% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $11.86 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 26.0 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,608 a month means $804 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,408 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $7,657.
How fast you can save
At $104 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 97 months (8.1 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 194 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Fast Food and Counter Workers pay in Polk County, FL
What is the hourly wage for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL?
The median is $13.49 per hour, based on $28,050 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $13.01 at the 10th percentile to $16.65 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $28,050 becomes $24,667 a year. That is $2,056 a month, $949 every two weeks or $474 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL?
Total taxes are $3,383 a year, an effective rate of 12.1%: $1,238 federal income tax, $2,146 FICA and no Florida income tax.
Is pay for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL above the Florida average?
No. The local median of $28,050 is -3.5% versus the Florida average of $29,062, a difference of $1,012 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Fast Food and Counter Workers salary in Polk County, FL?
A one-bedroom costs $1,338 a month against take-home pay of $2,056, which is 65.1% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $701 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Polk County, FL?
About $104 a month ($1,249 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $23,418 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Polk County, FL at the 30% guideline?
$25.73 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $16,056 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Fast Food and Counter Workers is $13.49.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Florida rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.