Despite growing wages across the industry, quick-service workers are falling short of a living wage in the top 50 metropolitan markets.
Based on an average hourly wage of $15.07 per hour, fast-food workers would need to work more than twice as long as those in other occupations to buy a typical fast-food meal, according to a survey released Monday by online lending marketplace LendingTree. The report, however, was based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from May 2024.
Those not working in fast food earning the average U.S. wage would need to work 21.2 minutes to cover the cost of a fast-food meal ($11.56 on average), for example. But fast-food workers would need to work 46 minutes to pay for the same meal, the report said—though that gap is larger in expensive cities like San Jose, California, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. The average meal cost was calculated using pricing in April from Burger King, Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.
Wages for fast-food workers can vary widely by market. Hourly workers in Fresno, California, for example, earn about $37,390 annually on average, which the survey said is about 23% short of a livable wage of $48,567 before taxes. (The survey was based on a living wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)
In Atlanta, the average fast-food wage was calculated as $28,180 annually, which is about 48% below the livable wage of $54,656, the report said.
Across the 10 areas with the highest livable wage shortfalls, fast-food workers face a living wage gap above 42%, and would need to work more than 70 hours per week to afford basic living expenses, which amounts to a 10-hour workday, 365 days a year.
Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, in a statement called the results “troubling.”
“No one has ever expected to get rich off of fast-food wages, but the fact that these workers can’t even expect a livable wage is troubling. Unfortunately, the situation isn’t likely to get better anytime soon,” he said.
Meanwhile, the highest cost of a fast-food meal is in San Francisco ($13.88) and the lowest is in Columbus, Ohio, ($10.01).
Fast-food workers in San Franciso earned an average hourly wage of $20.67, and would have to work for nearly 37 minutes to pay for the average fast-food meal ($12.73). Other workers earning an average of $48.15 per hour in San Francisco would only have to work 16 minutes to afford that meal.
In Columbus, fast-food workers earn an average of $14.24 per hour and would have to work for more than 41 minutes to afford the average cost of a fast-food meal ($9.85), while the average non-fast-food worker earned $31.39 per hour and would have to work close to 19 minutes for that meal, the survey said.
For the estimated 3.8 million Americans working in fast food, LendingTree offered the following advice: Look at other career paths. Supplement income with a side hustle. Or relocate to a more affordable city.
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