What Cooks, Fast Food earn in Clayton County, GA
According to the latest federal wage data for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metropolitan area, the median pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Clayton County, GA is $26,940 a year, or $12.95 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $22,985 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Clayton County, GA.
The mean wage is $28,500, which is 5.8% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,100 people working in this occupation across the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Clayton County, GA has roughly 298,924 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 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $20,800 a year ($10.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $36,850 or more ($17.72 an hour). That is a gap of $16,050 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $23,350 at the 25th percentile and $34,320 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: $12.95 an hour or $26,940 a year at the median for Clayton County, GA. Before any deductions, that is $2,245 a month, $1,036 every two weeks and $518 each week. After taxes the same job pays $11.05 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 Clayton County, GA median of $26,940 is 12.8% below it.
How pay in Clayton County, GA compares
Compared with the Georgia average
A worker in this occupation in Clayton County, GA earns $610 more than the Georgia average of $26,330, a premium of 2.3%. Over a year that premium is worth $610 before tax and roughly $520 after tax. Within Georgia, Clayton County, GA 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 $26,940, Clayton County, GA pays $4,738 less, which is 15.0% 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 Clayton County, GA
Among the 585 occupations with published wages in Clayton County, GA, Cooks, Fast Food ranks number 584 by median pay, ahead of about 0% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers at $618,090 a year, which is $591,150 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 Clayton County, GA median of $26,940, they add up to $3,955. The result is $22,985 of take-home pay a year ($1,915 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $15 goes to taxes and $85 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 14.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $11,190. 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 $1,119, an effective 4.2% 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 $1,670 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $391. FICA totals $2,061, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Georgia
Georgia income tax on this salary is $775 a year, or 2.9% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 69% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $65 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 Clayton County, GA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Clayton County, GA show an average adjusted gross income of $42,060 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 7.9% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 4.3%, compared with the 4.2% 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 Clayton County, GA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Clayton County, GA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $22,985 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Clayton County, GA, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,619 a month ($19,428 a year), and at $1,762 for two bedrooms. For Cooks, Fast Food, a one-bedroom absorbs 84.5% of take-home pay and 72.1% 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 12.8% of gross pay for Cooks, Fast Food in Clayton County, GA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Georgia residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,488 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $720, for $2,207 in total. Gasoline in Georgia averages $2.95 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,366.
What is left over
The basics cost $26,437 a year in Clayton County, GA, but take-home pay for Cooks, Fast Food is $22,985. That is a shortfall of $3,453 a year, or $288 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 312 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $11.05, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Local housing and commute data for Clayton County, GA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Clayton County, GA: 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 Clayton County, GA, set beside the Georgia and national medians.
Property taxes in Clayton County, GA
Homeowners in Clayton County, GA pay a median of $1,933 a year in real estate taxes, 17% below the Georgia median of $2,341 and 38% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $222,300, the median tax bill is 0.87% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Cooks, Fast Food median of $26,940, a tax bill of that size would equal 7.2% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Clayton County, GA
Renters in Clayton County, GA pay a median gross rent of $1,433 a month in the Census survey, 3% above the Georgia median of $1,393. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,619 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 $222,300, 27% below the Georgia median of $303,300. Median household income is $59,806, 23% below the Georgia median of $77,353, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 32.5% of that income.
Commuting in Clayton County, GA
Workers in Clayton County, GA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 31.6 minutes each way, 12% above the Georgia average of 28.3. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.3 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 10.6% of workers in Clayton County, GA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Cooks, Fast Food afford to live in Clayton County, GA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $26,940 that ceiling is $674 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,619 is $946 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $31.13 an hour; the median for Cooks, Fast Food is $12.95, which is 58% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $11.05 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 33.8 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,762 a month means $881 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $8,856 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $5,403, which turns the shortfall into a surplus.
How fast you can save
With no monthly margin after the four basics, saving requires a change on one side of the ledger: higher pay than the $26,940 median, lower housing costs than the $1,619 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Cooks, Fast Food pay in Clayton County, GA
How much do Cooks, Fast Food make per hour in Clayton County, GA?
The median is $12.95 per hour, based on $26,940 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $10.00 at the 10th percentile to $17.72 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Cooks, Fast Food take home after taxes in Clayton County, GA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $26,940 becomes $22,985 a year. That is $1,915 a month, $884 every two weeks or $442 a week.
How much tax do Cooks, Fast Food pay in Clayton County, GA?
Total taxes are $3,955 a year, an effective rate of 14.7%: $1,119 federal income tax, $2,061 FICA and $775 Georgia income tax.
Do Cooks, Fast Food earn more in Clayton County, GA than elsewhere in Georgia?
Yes. The local median of $26,940 is +2.3% versus the Georgia average of $26,330, a difference of $610 a year.
Can Cooks, Fast Food afford a one-bedroom apartment in Clayton County, GA?
A one-bedroom costs $1,619 a month against take-home pay of $1,915, which is 84.5% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $674 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Cooks, Fast Food in Clayton County, GA?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $26,437 a year, which is $3,453 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $288.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Clayton County, GA at the 30% guideline?
$31.13 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $19,428 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Cooks, Fast Food is $12.95.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA 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 Georgia 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.