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Glossary

Wage vulnerability

The risk that workers in a role have limited wage buffer or weak bargaining power if parts of the job are automated, outsourced, or redesigned.

What this means in practice

Two roles can face the same automation pressure with very different human stakes. Wage vulnerability captures the difference: a worker earning near the wage floor with interchangeable skills has little cushion when hours or headcount are cut.

Fast Food and Counter Workers and Home Health Aides both carry high wage vulnerability — large workforces, low median wages, thin bargaining power — even though their automation exposure differs sharply. The metric pushes transition planning toward wage preservation, not just task safety.

In the data

See this term in the occupation data

These published occupation pages show wage vulnerability in action — with task-level exposure, automation and augmentation scores, wage context, and transition pathways.

SOC 35-3023

Fast Food and Counter Workers

Kiosk ordering, drive-through voice systems, scheduling tools, and prep automation can reduce routine counter work. Reliability, shift leadership, food safety, and customer recovery remain more resilient.

Exposure
47
Automation
39%
Augment
24%
SOC 31-1121

Home Health and Personal Care Aides

Helping elderly and disabled people bathe, dress, eat, and stay safely at home is the fastest-growing job category in America — and the least automatable. Remote monitoring and AI check-in calls supplement but cannot substitute for physical presence.

Exposure
16
Automation
6%
Augment
26%
SOC 41-2031

Retail Salespersons

Product questions, checkout, inventory lookup, and scripted service can be augmented or automated. In-person trust, merchandising judgment, local customer knowledge, and service recovery remain important anchors.

Exposure
56
Automation
34%
Augment
42%