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Pay · 51-3022

Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers earn $38,300 a year at the midpoint

Pay is unusually even: nine in ten people earn between $29,980 and $48,150, around a midpoint of $38,300.

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$38,300median a year · United States
$18.41an hour $39,280average 145,700people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$35,35025th $38,300median $44,17075th
$29,98010th percentile $48,15090th percentile
$35,350a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$50,390best-paying state · Colorado
$27,850lowest-paying state · Louisiana
+32%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $35,350, is within 8% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $50,390 in Colorado and $27,850 in Louisiana — a gap of $22,540 a year.

Meat, poultry, and fish cutter earnings, from starting pay to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Meat, poultry, and fish cutter pay rate, hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$38,293a year

Meat, poultry, and fish cutter wages in each state

The 45 states where the most people do this work, of 50 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.81 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Colorado $50,390 $47,520 $47,520 — $57,280 2,470
Arizona $48,550 $36,510 $36,510 — $48,550 620
Kansas $48,080 $39,660 $39,660 — $59,250 5,000
Nebraska $47,580 $40,850 $40,850 — $55,230 8,340
North Dakota $47,250 $31,250 $31,250 — $47,250 390
Michigan $44,430 $37,940 $37,940 — $46,630 920
South Dakota $44,290 $35,730 $35,730 — $48,150 2,080
Utah $44,150 $37,320 $37,320 — $46,020 1,080
Minnesota $43,400 $36,080 $36,080 — $46,770 3,790
Wisconsin $43,300 $35,890 $35,890 — $48,490 2,040
Iowa $43,190 $39,170 $39,170 — $46,220 3,970
Washington $43,010 $36,600 $36,600 — $52,470 3,630
Indiana $42,450 $36,680 $36,680 — $45,000 2,640
Missouri $41,890 $34,930 $34,930 — $47,850 2,880
Illinois $40,690 $35,750 $35,750 — $47,390 4,040
Hawaii $40,260 $35,660 $35,660 — $49,380 800
Georgia $39,330 $30,150 $30,150 — $45,800 11,480
Idaho $39,200 $31,200 $31,200 — $44,530 280
Maine $39,170 $32,590 $32,590 — $58,930 660
North Carolina $39,170 $29,710 $29,710 — $41,640 9,750
Kentucky $39,150 $36,860 $36,860 — $45,590 1,450
Arkansas $37,980 $33,470 $33,470 — $44,540 9,030
Nevada $37,920 $31,440 $31,440 — $56,940 360
Mississippi $37,890 $28,870 $28,870 — $41,170 6,470
Rhode Island $37,740 $33,280 $33,280 — $50,300 320
Tennessee $37,590 $28,090 $28,090 — $44,220 2,970
New York $37,330 $32,740 $32,740 — $52,040 2,420
Alaska $37,180 $35,640 $35,640 — $38,840 970
Wyoming $37,040 $30,030 $30,030 — $45,790 70
Ohio $37,020 $35,350 $35,350 — $45,410 3,540
West Virginia $36,870 $22,550 $22,550 — $46,840 220
California $36,570 $34,950 $34,950 — $46,040 9,270
Massachusetts $36,570 $33,330 $33,330 — $46,400 2,350
Pennsylvania $36,480 $31,800 $31,800 — $43,550 1,600
Oklahoma $36,300 $34,960 $34,960 — $46,180 1,530
Virginia $36,170 $29,470 $29,470 — $43,240 2,740
Oregon $36,060 $35,640 $35,640 — $45,360 910
Texas $35,890 $23,230 $23,230 — $45,230 8,590
Delaware $35,500 $34,320 $34,320 — $38,070 5,430
South Carolina $34,790 $34,090 $34,090 — $39,390 2,750
Maryland $32,950 $31,200 $31,200 — $45,870 680
New Mexico $31,240 $29,330 $29,330 — $44,490 240
Florida $31,160 $27,240 $27,240 — $46,170 2,310
Alabama $31,080 $22,130 $22,130 — $39,330 9,140
Louisiana $27,850 $21,570 $21,570 — $38,120 1,690

Resumes for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Web browser softwareMicrosoft ExcelMeat inventory softwareSales software
  • Used knives, cleavers, meat saws, bandsaws, or other equipment to perform meat cutting and trimming.
  • Weighed meats and tag containers for weight and contents.
  • Inspected meat products for defects, bruises or blemishes and removed them along with any excess fat.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Neighbouring work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers$38,300
Food Batchmakers$42,290+$3,990 Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders$41,590+$3,290 Butchers and Meat Cutters$40,140+$1,840 Slaughterers and Meat Packers$40,130+$1,830 Bakers$37,160−$1,140

Examples

Resumes made for this kind of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

All templates →

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No. 713 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 10% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 711 Parts Salespersons $38,630
  2. 712 Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service $38,630
  3. 713 Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers $38,300
  4. 714 Orderlies $38,290
  5. 715 Motion Picture Projectionists $38,270

What people often ask

What is a meat, poultry, and fish cutter’s yearly income?

A meat, poultry, and fish cutter makes a median of $38,300 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $35,350 and $44,170.

What is a meat, poultry, and fish cutter’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $18.41 an hour; the average is $39,280 a year.

What is the starting pay for a meat, poultry, and fish cutter?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $35,350 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $29,980.

Which state pays meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers the most?

Colorado, with a median of $50,390 a year.

How many people work as meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers?

About 145,700 in the United States — number 713 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Jobs that pay about the same

Median pay within $160 of what meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers earn — $38,300 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations