Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 35-2011, #306 of 1,410 by filings

Cooks, Fast Food

Biggest sponsor: MM Management Systems, LLC · 76% of its filings
Busiest state: MO · 82% 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.

Compare my offer DOL's wage levels for this job

This rate is level with the field

Over 101 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.

Why

The 95% interval runs up to a 11.1% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.

Median wage

$27,040

all PERM $103,272

Filings

101

#306 of 1,410

Approval

95.0%

field 96.8%

Median days

323

154 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.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$27,040above 5%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

95.0%ahead of 38%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

323 daysahead of 99.8%

323d 536d

Each bar counts occupations at that value. More

Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. The line marks this one.

DOL PERM disclosure files

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

MM Management Systems, LLC 77 filings · 100.0% approved
Bruce restaurants LLC 4 filings
JIMS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, INC. 2 filings
PIT STOP CORNER CAFE LLC 2 filings
Stop N Shop LLC 2 filings
Touch Cha Inc dba Hanuman Thai Eatery 2 filings

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 89 of 101 filings, 88% of the total.

Firms filing it

ALG Lawyers 4 filings
LAW OFFICE OF DAVID R GATES PLLC 4 filings
Versfeld Hugo, LLC 2 filings
AG IMMIGRATION LAW GROUP 1 filings
Anthony Drago, Jr., P.C. 1 filings
Aum Lee, LLC 1 filings

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 13 of 101 filings, 13% of the total.

Where the jobs are

Missouri 83
Massachusetts 3
Maryland 3
Alaska 2
California 2
Illinois 2

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 95 of 101 filings.

Where the work is

Kansas City, MO 79
Des Peres, MO 4
Anchorage, AK 2
Costa Mesa, CA 2
Joliet, IL 2
Appleton, WI 1

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 90 of 101 filings.

Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023

From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.

Country of citizenship

South Korea 268
Iran 178
China 172
Vietnam 102
Taiwan 37
Pakistan 29

Worker's education

None 855
High School 70
Other 11
Bachelor's 5
Associate's 2
Master's 1

Visa held when filed

NOT IN USA 109
F-1 71
B-2 26
E-2 14
EWI 8
J-1 6

Schools

ABORAYHAN HIGH SCHOOL 1
ADAB HIGH SCHOOL 1
AISHA BAWANY SCHOOL 1
AZADEGAN ART SCHOOL 1
AZADI CONSERVATORY SCHOOL 1
BAGMATI BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL 1

Fields of study

GENERAL EDUCATION 31
GENERAL 15
GENERAL HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION 5
HIGH SCHOOL 5
HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION 2
N/A 2

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.

What the job pays outside PERM BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27

United States
641,070 jobs
Kansas City, MO-KS
Kansas City
St. Louis, MO-IL
Des Peres
Anchorage, AK
Anchorage
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Costa Mesa
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Joliet

$30k$40k

middle half of pay (BLS)
median
10th to 90th percentile
DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
median PERM offer

Market pay and DOL wage levels, by area
Area	BLS median	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
United States	$30,890
Kansas City, MO-KS	$30,170	$29,203	$30,222	$31,221	$32,240
St. Louis, MO-IL	$30,860	$29,806	$31,138	$32,448	$33,779
Anchorage, AK	$33,960	$29,931	$32,094	$34,237	$36,400
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$38,000	$36,462	$38,334	$40,186	$42,058
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	$35,360	$31,658	$33,821	$35,963	$38,126

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

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

DOL's levels for this job in Kansas City, MO-KS, 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.

DOL wage levels by wage year, Kansas City, MO-KS
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$29,203	$30,222	$31,221	$32,240
2025-26	$27,706	$29,162	$30,638	$32,094
2024-25	$27,040	$28,350	$29,640	$30,950
2023-24	$24,128	$25,896	$27,685	$29,453
2022-23	$22,443	$24,045	$25,646	$27,248
2021-22	$19,365	$20,987	$22,630	$24,253

Every area and both wage tables in the wage-level tool.

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.

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 306 of 1,410 by volume: 305 filed at least as many filings, and 1,104 filed no more.

Just above: N/A 101 filings
Just below: Network and Computer Systems Administrators 99 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.

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. 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 101 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 101 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 MM Management Systems, 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