Skip to content
Singulariki

Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Restaurant

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Fast Food and Counter Workers and Cooks, Restaurant on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Fast Food and Counter Workers Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$30,480
$36,830
Employment · BLS OEWS
3,780,930
1,452,130
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
56th pct
60th pct

At a glance

Dimension Fast Food and Counter Workers Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay $30,480 $36,830
Employment 3,780,930 1,452,130
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+6.1%) Growing fast (+14.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 904,300 250,700
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 56th pct Moderate · 60th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 29th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Automation-leaning (49.8%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Food Production, Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Monitoring, Time Sharing, Trunk Strength, Information Ordering, Manual Dexterity, Speaking, Problem Sensitivity, Selective Attention, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Critical Thinking, Far Vision, Reading Comprehension, Judgment and Decision Making, Time Management, Deductive Reasoning, Finger Dexterity.

Specific to Fast Food and Counter Workers

  • Mathematics
  • Service Orientation
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Administration and Management
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Production and Processing
  • Auditory Attention
  • Administrative

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

  • Perceptual Speed
  • Control Precision
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Category Flexibility
  • Active Learning
  • Visualization
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Written Comprehension

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Web page creation and editing software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Point of sale POS software , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Fast Food and Counter Workers

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Fast Food and Counter Workers or Cooks, Restaurant — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Restaurant." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-restaurant

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Restaurant. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-restaurant

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-restaurant,
  title  = {Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Restaurant},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-restaurant}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.