The Highest Paying US McDonald's Is In This Densely Populated State

McDonald's has become an American treasure since it was first founded in San Bernadino, California back in 1940. It then went on to start something of a fast food revolution in the United States, becoming the inspiration behind numerous similar restaurants like Burger King and more to spread throughout the country. Since then, the American-founded fast food chain has exploded into a global enterprise, with countless locations open all over the world.

However, even though McDonald's has become such a globally successful enterprise, whenever you stop by a location to order food, the last thing you are probably thinking when you speak to an employee at the counter is that they must be making a lot of money. Working at fast food restaurants like McDonald's is widely recognized as a blue-collar job with little benefits and low pay. That being said, what does the fast food giant actually pay its employees in 2024? Let's take a look at some of the highest paying states for McDonald's employees in the U.S. in order to determine which one reigns supreme.

The amount of money a McDonald's employee will make per year in the United States largely depends on the location in which they work and the type of position they have. For example, a store manager is certainly going to be paid more annually than someone who solely operates the cash register. That is a given. However, for simplicity's sake, let's take a look at the national averages of pay by state in the U.S. to determine where employees are getting the most money.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for McDonald's employees in the United States is $34,370 per year. The top five highest-paying states are Washington, District of Columbia (Washington D.C.), New York, Massachusetts, and Alaska. The average hourly rate of these states in order are $18.72, $18.67, $18.08, $18.05, and $17.80. So on average, for a 40-hour work week, employees in these top-paying states would be making somewhere between $37,000-$38,928 per ZipRecruiter's analysis. As for the top five lowest paying states, Florida comes in at number one, followed by West Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia, and Louisiana. The average hourly salary in order for McDonald's workers in these states is $12.35, $12.79, $13.66, $13.95, and $14.13. This would make the annual salary for these states fall somewhere between $25,685-$29,391. However, these are only ZipRecruiter's estimations. Figures from other sources provide us with different results, so let's take a look at those for further clarification.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage for fast food workers in the United States in 2023 was $14.20 per hour, or $29,540 a year. This is slightly lower than ZipRecruiter's average estimate of $34,370. However, in an analysis done by Indeed (as of December 2024), the average wage of McDonald's workers is $12.82 per hour. This estimate was gathered from data taken from 2,181 McDonald's employees across the country.

Now while ZipRecruiter stated that Washington was the highest paying state for McDonald's employees in the U.S., recent news from California suggests otherwise. In 2023, a law was passed in the state requiring fast food restaurants like McDonald's to pay employees a minimum wage of $20 an hour. This would mean that ZipRecruiter's analysis placing California McDonald's employees at an average pay of $16.31 an hour is outdated. It's likely that this estimate is based on figures from 2022 where according to the official website of the state of California, the minimum hourly wage for fast food workers was $16.21. The raise to $20 an hour became effective as of April of this year, making the average annual salary of Californian McDonald's workers somewhere in the range of $40,000. This would officially make California the state with the highest average salary for fast food workers in the  country. You can visit the California Department of Industrial Relations website for more information on this matter.