Fast Food and Counter Workers Average Salary in Alabama
$25,600 average · $25,600 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 35-3023What is this?
Professional in fast food and counter workers
How much do Fast Food and Counter Workers make in Alabama?
The average fast food and counter workers salary in Alabama is $25,600 per year. That works out to about $12.31 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 41,460 fast food and counter workers jobs in Alabama.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $25,600. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $25,600; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $25,600 — a 0% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Food Preparation and Serving Careers Are Structured
Food service is the largest low-wage occupational group in the country, and also one where the published data most understates true variation: tipped earnings are inconsistently captured, so wages for servers and bartenders in busy, high-priced markets can run far above the recorded figures, while quiet-market wages match them.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how fast food and counter workers pay is distributed in Alabama specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
For tipped roles, venue economics dominate — the same skills earn multiples more at a high-volume, high-check establishment. For kitchen roles, the ladder from line cook through sous chef to kitchen manager is the pay path, and it is climbed by demonstrated reliability more than credentials. Hotel and institutional food service generally out-pays restaurants at equivalent levels and adds benefits.
Entry is immediate and the skills are learned working. The realistic financial trajectories are: into supervision (the first-line supervisor premium over crew wages is visible and substantial in this data), into institutional settings with benefits, or out — food service experience transfers credibly into sales, customer success, and operations roles with stronger distributions.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Fast Food and Counter Workers Do?
Professional in fast food and counter workers
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 35-3023
Fast Food and Counter Workers pay in Alabama
In Alabama, fast food and counter workers report a median of $25,600 (about $12.31/hour) across roughly 41,460 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $25,600 at the 10th percentile to $25,600 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons Alabama wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
Income reality check
The median salary for Fast Food and Counter Workers in Alabama of $25,600 falls in the Low-income band of this framework - roughly ~18% of the U.S. population and ~25% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
Salary Overview
Salary Distribution & Your Position
Advance Your Career
Ready to level up? Find courses, certifications, and coaching to boost your salary potential.
AI Replacement Risk Analysis
Forward-looking analysis of automation and AI impact
- Physical presence and manual skills required
Includes risk scoring, timeline estimates, adaptation strategies, and more
Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Fast Food and Counter Workers
| $35,622 | $35,459 | $17 | 452,680 | |
| $35,577 | $35,640 | $17 | 254,340 | |
SOC: 445000 | $34,400 | $34,720 | $17 | 134,820 |
| $31,770 | $30,757 | $15 | 10,068,420 |
Related Occupations
SOC: 53-7062 • 82% match | $42,117 | $42,260 | $20 | 15,269,800 |
SOC: 35-3031 • 87% match | $40,070 | $40,060 | $19 | 13,138,520 |
SOC: 53-7065 • 84% match | $39,579 | $39,440 | $19 | 14,316,800 |
SOC: 41-2031 • 81% match | $37,302 | $37,310 | $18 | 19,723,450 |
| Find Occupation 41 2031 Jobs | ||||
| $33,202 | $33,180 | $16 | 15,770,510 | |
SOC: 35-2011 • 85% match | $32,368 | $32,320 | $16 | 3,237,210 |
Related Occupations
Explore similar occupations and career paths:
Fast Food And Counter Workers in Other States
Compare salaries for this occupation across different states:
Explore More Data for Fast Food And Counter Workers
Career Advancement Strategy
Explore Similar Careers
Related Metrics
Viewing: Fast Food and Counter Workers (SOC: 35-3023)
Embed this data
Add this salary widget to your site - free to use.
<iframe src="https://wageatlas.com/embed/salary/fast-food-and-counter-workers/alabama" width="100%" height="320" style="border:0;max-width:480px" loading="lazy" title="Salary widget by Wage Atlas"></iframe>