Rank #7 of 33
Memphis, TN
Memphis, TN-MS-AR
10.2
Tacos per hour at the local median wage
$2.15
Avg taco price
$21.93
Median hourly wage (2024)
$2.50
Fast-casual taqueria
$1.79
Taco Bell crunchy taco
Memphis sits above the national average. An hour of local work buys 10.2 tacos here, compared with 9.3 tacos per hour across the 33-city index (+0.9 vs national average).
Local note
Memphis has a relatively small but well-established Mexican-American community concentrated along Summer Avenue, where most of the city's taquerias and trucks operate. Standard taco prices are among the lowest in the South, with $1–2 per taco still common at no-frills trucks.
Where the numbers come from
Fast-casual: Summer Avenue corridor — Taqueria Express ($1.25 Superman taco), Taqueria El Burrito Express ($0.99 chicken), Taco Nganas. Chain: Taco Bell crunchy taco $1.79 (low-cost market).
Average taco price ($2.15) is $0.62 below 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.