Fast Food and Counter Workers

Highest risk Low pay & highrisk
Imminent Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

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Why it fits

Fits experienced workers moving into staffing, food safety, inventory, customer issues, and service metrics.

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Why it fits

Fits experienced workers using shift flow, food safety, coaching, customer issues, and service standards.

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67% automation risk | High Risk
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Why it fits

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Counter and Rental Clerks
74% automation risk | High Risk
Pays better
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Why it fits

Transfers counter transactions, customer questions, availability checks, payments, returns, and problem solving.

Baristas
66% automation risk | High Risk
14.2 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Applies counter service, drink orders, payments, speed, customer preferences, and cleanliness.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
3.2/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

81% (Imminent Risk)

Imminent Risk (81-100%): This occupation appears highly exposed to end-to-end replacement by AI, software, robotics, or other computer-controlled systems. Roles in this range often involve predictable, repeatable, or rules-based work with limited need for human judgement, trust, creativity, or adaptation to messy real-world conditions. This does not mean every job will disappear immediately, but it is a strong signal to consider safer alternatives or start building more resilient skills.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 224 votes

87% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's very probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 81% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Fast Food and Counter Workers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Fast Food and Counter Workers was $30,480 ($15 per hour).

The median annual wage for Fast Food and Counter Workers was 38.4% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Fast Food and Counter Workers' job openings is expected to rise 6.1% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 3,780,930 people employed as 'Fast Food and Counter Workers' within the United States.

This represents around 2.5% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 40 people are employed as 'Fast Food and Counter Workers'.

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What people are saying (3)

robot takes fast food worker role (Highly likely)
10 Jan 2025 07:27
ORDER: Cheeseburger, Large Fries, Chicken Nuggets.

YOU WILL HAVE YOUR ORDER IN APPROXIMATELY 2 Minutes AND 26 Seconds
G (Highly likely)
18 Nov 2022 19:00
out of necessity. There is too much demand for fast food, and not enough labour. Barely need AI to automate. Current technologies will suffice.
TA Smith (Highly likely)
02 Sep 2022 21:52
Likely, since fewer people desire to work in fast food jobs, I could very well imagine automation in fast food restaurants where there is no variation in preparation.
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Job description

Perform duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages. Serve customers at counter or from a steam table. May take payment. May prepare food and beverages.

O*NET-SOC code: 35-3023.00