Fast Food and Counter Workers
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.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Social Perceptiveness
- Coordination
- Service Orientation
- Monitoring
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Reading Comprehension
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Food Production
- Mathematics
- Computers and Electronics
- Administration and Management
- Sales and Marketing
- Production and Processing
What the work involves
- Communicate with customers regarding orders, comments, and complaints.
- Accept payment from customers, and make change as necessary.
- Scrub and polish counters, steam tables, and other equipment, and clean glasses, dishes, and fountain equipment.
- Perform cleaning duties, such as sweeping, mopping, and washing dishes, to keep equipment and facilities sanitary.
- Balance receipts and payments in cash registers.
- Request and record customer orders, and compute bills, using cash registers, multi-counting machines, or pencil and paper.
- Serve food, beverages, or desserts to customers in such settings as take-out counters of restaurants or lunchrooms, business or industrial establishments, hotel rooms, and cars.
- Prepare daily food items, and cook simple foods and beverages, such as sandwiches, salads, soups, pizza, or coffee, using proper safety precautions and sanitary measures.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Realistic, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Less than a High School Diploma (56.3% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (74.3%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (39.9%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Fast Food and Counter Workers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 92% of occupations compared | 89% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 88% of occupations compared | 58% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Very high | Higher on teamwork than 89% of occupations compared | 86% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | High | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 73% of occupations compared | 73% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 98% of occupations compared | 56% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 76% of occupations compared | 42% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 98% of occupations compared | 78% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Consequence of error | Low | Lower on consequence of error than 73% of occupations compared | 35% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0.05%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0.16%
- Contact with others most of the time: 10.46%
- Constant contact with others: 89.33%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0.42%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 13.81%
- Very important: 27.6%
- Extremely important: 58.17%
n = 37, Incumbent 08/2025
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 2.91%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 6.13%
- Very important: 4.82%
- Extremely important: 86.14%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0.2%
- Very little freedom: 9.78%
- Limited freedom: 14.66%
- Some freedom: 1.99%
- A lot of freedom: 73.37%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Time pressure
- Never: 56.23%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 6.87%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 0.37%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 13.59%
- Every day: 22.94%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Conflict situations
- Never: 12.07%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 23.93%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 7.6%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 42.05%
- Every day: 14.35%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0.39%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 16.85%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 1.79%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 3.08%
- Every day: 77.89%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 34.76%
- Fairly serious: 15.48%
- Serious: 14.57%
- Very serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Extremely serious: 0.77%
n = 38, Incumbent 08/2025
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O*NET-SOC 35-3023.00 · SOC 35-3023 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8