What Cooks, Fast Food earn in Austin County, TX
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $23,090: the median annual pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Austin County, TX. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $11.10 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $26,360, which is 14.2% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,950 people working in this occupation across the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Austin County, TX has roughly 31,170 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Cooks, Fast Food in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $21,530 a year ($10.35 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $38,210 or more ($18.37 an hour). That is a gap of $16,680 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $22,690 at the 25th percentile and $29,010 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.8 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $11.10 an hour or $23,090 a year at the median for Austin County, TX. Before any deductions, that is $1,924 a month, $888 every two weeks and $444 each week. After taxes the same job pays $9.90 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Cooks, Fast Food
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Cooks, Fast Food this way: "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."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Maintain sanitation, health, and safety standards in work areas"; "Clean food preparation areas, cooking surfaces, and utensils"; "Operate large-volume cooking equipment, such as grills, deep-fat fryers, or griddles"; "Verify that prepared food meets requirements for quality and quantity".
Job outlook for Cooks, Fast Food
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 640,500 jobs in 2025 to 644,100 in 2035, a change of +0.6%, slower than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 86,400 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 13.5% 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 $30,890 for this occupation; the Austin County, TX median of $23,090 is 25.3% below it.
How pay in Austin County, TX compares
Compared with the Texas average
Pay in Austin County, TX runs $5,405 below the Texas average of $28,495, a gap of 19.0%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Texas would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Texas, Austin County, TX already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Cooks, Fast Food is $31,678 across the contiguous United States. At $23,090, Austin County, TX pays $8,588 less, which is 27.1% 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 Austin County, TX
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Austin County, TX, Cooks, Fast Food ranks number 615 by median pay, ahead of about 0% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $172,160 a year, which is $149,070 more than the median for Cooks, Fast Food.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Cooks, Fast Food earning the Austin County, TX median of $23,090, they add up to $2,500. The result is $20,590 of take-home pay a year ($1,716 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $11 goes to taxes and $89 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 10.8%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $7,340. 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 10% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $734, an effective 3.2% of gross pay, well below the 10% 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 $1,432 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $335. FICA totals $1,766, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Texas
Texas does not tax wage income, so the state income tax line for Cooks, Fast Food in Austin County, TX is $0. That alone leaves more in the paycheck than the same salary would in a state with an income tax. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,155 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $96 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Austin County, TX
IRS Statistics of Income data for Austin County, TX show an average adjusted gross income of $82,299 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 13.3% across all filers. Filers in the $10,000 to under $25,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 3.4%, compared with the 3.2% 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 Austin County, TX
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Austin County, TX: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $20,590 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Austin County, TX, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $817 a month ($9,804 a year), and at $1,069 for two bedrooms. For Cooks, Fast Food, a one-bedroom absorbs 47.6% of take-home pay and 42.5% 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 14.9% of gross pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Austin County, TX. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Texas residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,578 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $719, for $2,297 in total. Gasoline in Texas averages $2.88 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,334.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $16,871 a year in Austin County, TX. Subtract that from $20,590 of take-home pay and $3,718 remains, which is $310 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 16.1% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Austin County, TX
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Austin County, TX: 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 Austin County, TX, set beside the Texas and national medians.
Property taxes in Austin County, TX
Homeowners in Austin County, TX pay a median of $3,433 a year in real estate taxes, 19% below the Texas median of $4,232 and 10% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $296,900, the median tax bill is 1.16% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Cooks, Fast Food median of $23,090, a tax bill of that size would equal 14.9% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Austin County, TX
Renters in Austin County, TX pay a median gross rent of $1,137 a month in the Census survey, 19% below the Texas median of $1,403. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $817 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 $296,900, 5% above the Texas median of $283,800. Median household income is $75,789, 3% below the Texas median of $78,476, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 12.9% of that income.
Commuting in Austin County, TX
Workers in Austin County, TX who travel to a workplace spend an average of 28.5 minutes each way, 7% above the Texas average of 26.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 8.8% of workers in Austin County, TX work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Cooks, Fast Food afford to live in Austin County, TX?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $23,090 that ceiling is $577 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $817 is $240 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $15.71 an hour; the median for Cooks, Fast Food is $11.10, which is 29% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $9.90 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 19.0 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,069 a month means $535 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $3,390 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $7,108.
How fast you can save
At $310 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 33 months (2.8 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 66 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Cooks, Fast Food pay in Austin County, TX
How much do Cooks, Fast Food make per hour in Austin County, TX?
The median is $11.10 per hour, based on $23,090 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $10.35 at the 10th percentile to $18.37 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Cooks, Fast Food take home after taxes in Austin County, TX?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $23,090 becomes $20,590 a year. That is $1,716 a month, $792 every two weeks or $396 a week.
How much tax do Cooks, Fast Food pay in Austin County, TX?
Total taxes are $2,500 a year, an effective rate of 10.8%: $734 federal income tax, $1,766 FICA and no Texas income tax.
Do Cooks, Fast Food earn more in Austin County, TX than elsewhere in Texas?
No. The local median of $23,090 is -19.0% versus the Texas average of $28,495, a difference of $5,405 a year.
Can Cooks, Fast Food afford a one-bedroom apartment in Austin County, TX?
A one-bedroom costs $817 a month against take-home pay of $1,716, which is 47.6% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $577 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Cooks, Fast Food in Austin County, TX?
About $310 a month ($3,718 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $16,871 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Austin County, TX at the 30% guideline?
$15.71 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $9,804 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Cooks, Fast Food is $11.10.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX 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 Texas 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.