Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 35-2011.00, #118 of 1,410 by filings
Cooks, Fast Food
- Biggest sponsor
- Phase Three Star LLC · 41% of its filings
- Busiest state
- AZ · 15% of its filings
- Major group
- Food preparation and serving · SOC 35
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Median wage
$24,960
all PERM $103,272
Filings
452
#118 of 1,410
Approval
92.1%
field 96.8%
Median days
456
21 faster than the field
What it pays
Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.
Median offered wage
$24,960above 3%
Approval rate
92.1%ahead of 22%
Median days to decision
456 daysahead of 69%
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
- 5th to 95th
- 25th to 75th
- Median
- 10th and 90th
FY2025
$24,960 median · 275 certified cases
FY2026
$30,000 median · 83 certified cases
- 10th
- $20,800
- +0.0% since FY2025
- Median
- $30,000
- +20.2% since FY2025
- 90th
- $36,737
- +14.8% since FY2025
- 95th
- $36,754
- +3.9% since FY2025
These years are not measuring the same group of filings. The count moves by 3.3 times between the largest year and the smallest, so a change in the ladder is at least partly a change in which employers filed rather than a change in what the work pays. Read the shape, not the difference.
| Fiscal year | Cases | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 275 | $20,800 | $20,800 | $24,544 | $24,960 | $24,960 | $32,000 | $35,360 |
| FY2026 | 83 | $19,244 | $20,800 | $29,000 | $30,000 | $30,000 | $36,737 | $36,754 |
A median answers whether pay moved. More
Who files it
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.
Sponsors filing it
- Phase Three Star LLC 186 filings · 100.0% approved
- QSRRP LLC 23 filings
- Wenzona Yuma Inc 17 filings
- Urban Bird Hot Chicken LLC 15 filings
- Wenzona East Flagstaff Inc 12 filings
- ADW SUWANEE LLCCRAFT BURGER BY SHANE 11 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 264 of 452 filings, 58% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Ruby Law Group LLC 186 filings · 100.0% approved
- Immigration Solutions of America 108 filings · 74.7% approved
- Law Office of Tae K. Song 41 filings · 97.2% approved
- IMG PARK LAW CORP 23 filings
- Law Office of David Yurkofsky, Esq. 15 filings
- Versfeld & Hugo, LLC 10 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 383 of 452 filings, 85% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Arizona 69
- Georgia 39
- Michigan 29
- California 24
- Texas 23
- Florida 21
How this is counted
The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 205 of 452 filings.
Where the work is
- Yuma, AZ 27
- Flagstaff, AZ 23
- Rohnert Park, CA 23
- Suwanee, GA 20
- Houston, TX 15
- Alpharetta, GA 12
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 120 of 452 filings.
- Every sponsor that files it, by state, approval rate, offered wage and time to a decision
- Every filing for it, PERM, wage requests and H-1B, case by case
Newspapers it advertised in
- 50 cases
Lakeland Ledger
- 49 cases
Tampa Bay Times
- 34 cases
Tallahassee Democrat
- 32 cases
Arizona Daily Sun
- 25 cases
Dothan Eagle
- 25 cases
Yuma Sun
How this is counted
The newspaper or professional journal named for each case's two print ads, one count per paper per case, however the filer spelled it.
Additional steps it used
- 1 cases
Campus placement offices
- 1 cases
Job search websites
- 1 cases
Local or ethnic newspapers
How this is counted
The steps a professional job needs beyond the job order and the ads, by the number of cases that name each.
How long before filing it began
- 0.0%
Under 30 days
- 1.2%
30 to 59 days
- 22%
60 to 89 days
- 40%
90 to 119 days
- 19%
120 to 149 days
- 15%
150 to 180 days
- 2.8%
Over 180 days
How this is counted
Days from the first recruitment step to the filing. 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e) puts the job order and ads 30 to 180 days before filing.
The job itself
What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.
- United States641,070 jobs
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GASuwanee, Alpharetta
- Yuma, AZYuma
- Flagstaff, AZFlagstaff
- Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CARohnert Park
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TXHouston
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $30,890 | ||||
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $26,940 | $21,798 | $25,126 | $28,475 | $31,803 |
| Yuma, AZ | — | $30,805 | $32,094 | $33,405 | $34,694 |
| Flagstaff, AZ | $33,950 | $31,325 | $32,614 | $33,925 | $35,214 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $43,840 | $38,730 | $41,163 | $43,597 | $46,030 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $23,090 | $21,237 | $23,795 | $26,333 | $28,891 |
How these figures fit together
BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.
The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More
DOL's levels for this job in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA, year by year
Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $21,798 | $25,126 | $28,475 | $31,803 |
| 2025-26 | $23,442 | $25,979 | $28,496 | $31,034 |
| 2024-25 | $20,987 | $24,232 | $27,477 | $30,722 |
| 2023-24 | $20,363 | $22,714 | $25,064 | $27,414 |
| 2022-23 | $19,365 | $21,965 | $24,544 | $27,144 |
| 2021-22 | $17,638 | $19,531 | $21,445 | $23,338 |
What the job is
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.
- Preparation
- Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 1-2
- DOL's education basis
- None
- Wage year 2026-27
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- +0.6%
- About 86,400 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- No formal educational credential
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for numerous job openings.
The work, most important first
- Read food order slips or receive verbal instructions as to food required by patron, and prepare and cook food according to instructions.
- 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.
- Take food and drink orders and receive payment from customers.
- Cook the exact number of items ordered by each customer, working on several different orders simultaneously.
Titles people use for it
Cook, Grill Cook, Line Cook, Pizza Cook, Cook Line Worker, Fast Food Cook, Food Cook, Fry Cook.
Related jobs: Cooks, Short Order, Cooks, Restaurant, Food Preparation Workers, Bakers, Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria, Fast Food and Counter Workers.
This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 118 of 1,410 by volume: 117 filed at least as many filings, and 1,292 filed no more.
- Just above
- Chemists 460 filings
- Just below
- Agricultural Equipment Operators 450 filings
Other food preparation and serving roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #127 Food Preparation Worker 406 filings · 36 denied
- #108 Waiters and Waitresses 497 filings · 41 denied
- #129 First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers 405 filings · 18 denied
- #142 Dishwashers 352 filings · 13 denied
- #80 Cooks, Restaurant 793 filings · 57 denied
- #51 Food Preparation Workers 1,284 filings · 45 denied
Notes on these numbers
Reading the wage
A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.
What the median is
The median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.
What these numbers don't say
4 notes
- The code is the identity
- This one is SOC 35-2011.00. Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
- A median isn’t an offer
- It's the middle of all 452 wages committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
- Approval isn’t about the occupation
- The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title, so nothing here is a property of Cooks, Fast Food. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 452 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is Phase Three Star LLC. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built
Weighing an offer?
Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.
Setting one?
All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.
Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load
O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year
BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring
BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn
DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july
What each source includes
Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.
Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.
O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.
BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.
BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.
DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.
Cite this page
Waiting on a PERM case?
- When it'll likely be decided
- An email when DOL moves it