beta
Write my resume

Pay · 51-3023

Slaughterers and Meat Packers earn $40,130 a year at the midpoint

Most slaughterers and meat packers are paid close to one another — the middle is $40,130, and even the ends, $33,340 and $51,090, are not far off.

Write my resume for this job →

$40,130median a year · United States
$19.29an hour $41,770average 69,950people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$36,15025th $40,130median $46,87075th
$33,34010th percentile $51,09090th percentile
$36,150a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$50,480best-paying state · Colorado
$30,430lowest-paying state · Nevada
+26%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, $36,150, is within 10% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $50,480 in Colorado and $30,430 in Nevada — a gap of $20,050 a year.

Slaughterer 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.

Experience
Name this figure
When they ask “What are your salary expectations?”

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 →

Place 692 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 12% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 690 Laborers and freight, stock and material movers $40,240
  2. 691 Butchers and Meat Cutters $40,140
  3. 692 Slaughterers and Meat Packers $40,130
  4. 693 Production Workers, All Other $40,110
  5. 694 Animal Trainers $39,990

Examples

Resumes written for this line of work.

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

All templates →

  • Meat Packer Resume Template Production
  • Meat Cutter Resume Template Production
  • Butcher Resume Template Production
  • Baker Resume Template Production
  • Food Production Operator Resume Template Production
  • Food Batchmaker Resume Template Production
  • Food Cooking Machine Operator Resume Template Production
  • Food Processing Worker Resume Template Production
  • Structural Fitter Resume Template Production
  • Machine Assembler Resume Template Production
  • Electronics Assembler Resume Template Production
  • Extrusion Machine Operator Resume Template Production

Resumes for slaughterers and meat packers

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

Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Office softwareAccountMate Software AccountMateAgInfoLink Meat Inventory Tracking System MITSIntegrated Management Systems Food Connex CloudRFID softwareSecond Foundation NaviMeatTraceability software
  • Removed bones, and cut meat into standard cuts in preparation for marketing.
  • Severed jugular veins to drain blood and facilitate slaughtering.
  • Tended assembly lines, performing a few of the many cuts needed to process a carcass.

Write my resume →

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.

Slaughterer pay rate, hourly to annual

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

$40,123a year

Slaughterer wages across the states

The 45 states where the most people do this work, of 47 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.66 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Colorado $50,480 $38,910 $38,910 — $59,520 1,590
Arizona $49,020 $40,030 $40,030 — $58,870 440
Nebraska $48,910 $40,590 $40,590 — $55,310 5,480
Kansas $48,240 $39,180 $39,180 — $57,660 2,170
Montana $46,700 $37,450 $37,450 — $53,680 80
South Carolina $46,000 $33,740 $33,740 — $47,260 250
Oregon $45,980 $36,180 $36,180 — $50,770 360
Oklahoma $45,970 $33,290 $33,290 — $45,970 1,560
Michigan $45,850 $37,230 $37,230 — $53,120 2,920
New Jersey $45,230 $35,560 $35,560 — $57,580 1,050
Washington $45,100 $40,610 $40,610 — $55,740 840
Illinois $44,950 $33,970 $33,970 — $49,910 3,360
Missouri $44,490 $34,020 $34,020 — $49,460 1,280
South Dakota $44,410 $34,950 $34,950 — $48,080 740
Utah $44,040 $36,460 $36,460 — $46,810 560
Iowa $43,820 $33,750 $33,750 — $46,060 4,220
Indiana $43,770 $36,430 $36,430 — $48,300 1,210
Minnesota $43,360 $37,710 $37,710 — $44,030 2,820
Texas $43,160 $27,270 $27,270 — $49,910 2,950
Vermont $42,220 $31,970 $31,970 — $58,060 50
Idaho $40,370 $37,720 $37,720 — $47,680 450
Louisiana $40,120 $23,890 $23,890 — $45,160 650
North Carolina $39,930 $31,200 $31,200 — $49,550 6,120
North Dakota $39,730 $35,720 $35,720 — $70,660 160
California $39,420 $35,050 $35,050 — $49,400 6,170
Hawaii $38,890 $34,770 $34,770 — $48,450 120
Maine $38,740 $33,420 $33,420 — $51,500 50
Kentucky $38,330 $36,600 $36,600 — $42,400 320
Arkansas $37,800 $33,870 $33,870 — $43,700 2,140
Massachusetts $37,780 $34,730 $34,730 — $49,920 170
Maryland $37,650 $31,200 $31,200 — $51,070 130
Rhode Island $37,570 $36,640 $36,640 — $51,190 280
Wisconsin $37,510 $30,130 $30,130 — $53,210 2,620
Virginia $37,430 $29,350 $29,350 — $37,690 1,480
Pennsylvania $37,330 $30,130 $30,130 — $45,970 4,410
Ohio $36,800 $30,350 $30,350 — $45,520 2,440
Georgia $36,770 $31,690 $31,690 — $41,470 3,660
Alabama $36,360 $27,600 $27,600 — $45,080 240
Connecticut $36,290 $34,880 $34,880 — $49,000 70
Tennessee $35,790 $29,770 $29,770 — $46,880 650
Florida $34,430 $28,680 $28,680 — $39,420 400
New York $33,880 $32,240 $32,240 — $59,110 1,750
Mississippi $33,650 $27,720 $27,720 — $37,740 1,100
Delaware $31,200 $31,200 $31,200 — $31,910 50
Nevada $30,430 $29,630 $29,630 — $40,870 140

Related work, and what it pays

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

Slaughterers and Meat Packers$40,130
Food Batchmakers$42,290+$2,160 Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders$41,590+$1,460 Butchers and Meat Cutters$40,140+$10 Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers$38,300−$1,830 Bakers$37,160−$2,970

What people often ask

What is a slaughterer’s yearly income?

A slaughterer makes a median of $40,130 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $36,150 and $46,870.

What is a slaughterer’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $19.29 an hour; the average is $41,770 a year.

What is the starting pay for a slaughterer?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $36,150 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $33,340.

Which state pays slaughterers and meat packers the most?

Colorado, with a median of $50,480 a year.

How many people work as slaughterers and meat packers?

About 69,950 in the United States — number 692 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $140 of what slaughterers and meat packers earn — $40,130 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations