Rank #22 of 33
Boston, MA
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
9.0
Tacos per hour at the local median wage
$3.45
Avg taco price
$31.07
Median hourly wage (2024)
$4.00
Fast-casual taqueria
$2.89
Taco Bell crunchy taco
Boston sits below the national average. An hour of local work buys 9.0 tacos here, compared with 9.3 tacos per hour across the 33-city index (−0.3 vs national average).
Local note
Boston has fewer fast-casual taquerias per capita than most cities on this list, with the strongest cluster in East Boston's Maverick Square. The relative scarcity of authentic mom-and-pop taquerias plus the city's high cost of doing business push the standard taco price into a premium tier.
Where the numbers come from
Fast-casual: El Pelon Taqueria, Anna's Taqueria, Taqueria Jalisco (East Boston). Authentic single-taco fast-casual prices skew $3.50–$4.50. Chain: Taco Bell crunchy taco $2.89 (verified via Uber Eats; two Boston stores — 1084 Boylston St, 449 W Broadway — both list $3.40, implying ~$2.89 in-store after standard markup).
Average taco price ($3.45) is $0.68 above the national average of $2.77.
How this is calculated. Tacos per hour = median hourly wage ÷ average taco price.
Average taco price is the mean of the fast-casual taqueria anchor and the local Taco Bell crunchy taco price.
Wages come from BLS OEWS, May 2024, MSA-level median for all occupations.
Full methodology.