What Cooks, Fast Food earn in Rappahannock County, VA
According to the latest federal wage data for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, the median pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA is $35,800 a year, or $17.21 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $29,635 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Rappahannock County, VA.
The mean wage is $37,450, which is 4.6% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 10,580 people working in this occupation across the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Rappahannock County, VA has roughly 7,427 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 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $31,200 a year ($15.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $47,000 or more ($22.60 an hour). That is a gap of $15,800 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $33,520 at the 25th percentile and $40,310 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.5 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 Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA is $17.21. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $35,800, and the same salary is $2,983 a month before taxes or about $1,377 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $14.25 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 Rappahannock County, VA median of $35,800 is 15.9% above it.
How pay in Rappahannock County, VA compares
Compared with the Virginia average
Rappahannock County, VA pays above the state benchmark. The Virginia employment-weighted average for Cooks, Fast Food is $32,508; the local median of $35,800 beats it by $3,292, or 10.1%. Within Virginia, Rappahannock County, VA 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 $35,800, Rappahannock County, VA pays $4,122 more, which is 13.0% above 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 Rappahannock County, VA
Among the 618 occupations with published wages in Rappahannock County, VA, Cooks, Fast Food ranks number 609 by median pay, ahead of about 1% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $195,190 a year, which is $159,390 more than the median for Cooks, Fast Food.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $35,800 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 $6,165 a year, which leaves $29,635, or $2,470 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $17 goes to taxes and $83 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 17.2%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $20,050. 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 $2,168, an effective 6.1% 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 $2,220 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $519. FICA totals $2,739, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Virginia
Virginia income tax on this salary is $1,259 a year, or 3.5% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 58% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $105 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Rappahannock County, VA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Rappahannock County, VA show an average adjusted gross income of $118,031 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 16.4% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.8%, compared with the 6.1% 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 Rappahannock County, VA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Rappahannock County, VA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $29,635 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Rappahannock County, VA is $1,428 a month, or $17,136 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,555 a month. For Cooks, Fast Food, a one-bedroom absorbs 57.8% of take-home pay and 47.9% 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 9.6% of gross pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Virginia residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,523 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $597, for $2,119 in total. Gasoline in Virginia averages $3.09 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,429.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $24,120 a year, 81% of take-home pay. That leaves $5,515 a year, or $460 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 15.4% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Rappahannock County, VA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Rappahannock County, VA: 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 Rappahannock County, VA, set beside the Virginia and national medians.
Property taxes in Rappahannock County, VA
Homeowners in Rappahannock County, VA pay a median of $2,505 a year in real estate taxes, 10% below the Virginia median of $2,790 and 20% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $506,400, the median tax bill is 0.49% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Cooks, Fast Food median of $35,800, a tax bill of that size would equal 7.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Rappahannock County, VA
Renters in Rappahannock County, VA pay a median gross rent of $1,290 a month in the Census survey, 18% below the Virginia median of $1,579. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,428 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 $506,400, 32% above the Virginia median of $383,700. Median household income is $83,380, 11% below the Virginia median of $93,170, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 20.6% of that income.
Commuting in Rappahannock County, VA
Workers in Rappahannock County, VA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 35.7 minutes each way, 31% above the Virginia average of 27.3. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 6.0 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 17.2% of workers in Rappahannock County, VA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Cooks, Fast Food afford to live in Rappahannock County, VA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $35,800 that ceiling is $895 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,428 is $533 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $27.46 an hour; the median for Cooks, Fast Food is $17.21, which is 37% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $14.25 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 23.1 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,555 a month means $778 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,806 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $13,321.
How fast you can save
At $460 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 22 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 44 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Cooks, Fast Food pay in Rappahannock County, VA
What is the hourly wage for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA?
The median is $17.21 per hour, based on $35,800 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $15.00 at the 10th percentile to $22.60 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $35,800 becomes $29,635 a year. That is $2,470 a month, $1,140 every two weeks or $570 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA?
Total taxes are $6,165 a year, an effective rate of 17.2%: $2,168 federal income tax, $2,739 FICA and $1,259 Virginia income tax.
Is pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA above the Virginia average?
Yes. The local median of $35,800 is +10.1% versus the Virginia average of $32,508, a difference of $3,292 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Cooks, Fast Food salary in Rappahannock County, VA?
A one-bedroom costs $1,428 a month against take-home pay of $2,470, which is 57.8% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $895 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Cooks, Fast Food in Rappahannock County, VA?
About $460 a month ($5,515 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $24,120 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Rappahannock County, VA at the 30% guideline?
$27.46 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $17,136 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Cooks, Fast Food is $17.21.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 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 Virginia 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.