Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Food Servers, Nonrestaurant
Fast Food and Counter Workers carries the higher exposed share at 18.9% against 15.0%, a gap of 3.9 points. The difference is driven by capability: a current system can simply produce more of the first job's work product than the second's. Release v2026.Q3.
| Occupation | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Capability | Friction | Median pay | Rank | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 18.9% | 7.2% | 73.9% | 0.26 | 0.32 | $31,200 | 621 | untouched |
| Food Servers, Nonrestaurant | 15.0% | 7.9% | 77.1% | 0.23 | 0.34 | $35,360 | 708 | untouched |
What stands in the way, in each
Fast Food and Counter Workers: the dominant friction is that the work happens to physical things in physical places. Capability sits at 0.26 of 1 and friction at 0.32 of 1.
Food Servers, Nonrestaurant: the dominant friction is that the work happens to physical things in physical places. Capability sits at 0.23 of 1 and friction at 0.34 of 1.
Capability asks whether a generally available system can produce the work product at all. Friction asks what stops it finishing the job: physical work, being present, being accountable, unseen context, or the cost of checking the output. The rubric is here.
Read each in full
Exposure is not displacement. A higher score does not rank two jobs by how safe they are, and nothing here models adoption, employment or pay.