Careers / Slaughterers and Meat Packers
Slaughterers and Meat Packers — Career Decision Dashboard
United States
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Report generated from official BLS OEWS and O*NET data — United States.
Median annual wage
$40,130
United States, 2025
Employment
69,950
United States, 2025
Typical education
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
Job Zone 2
Skills identified
35
10 related careers
Career overview
Perform nonroutine or precision functions involving the preparation of large portions of meat. Work may include specialized slaughtering tasks, cutting standard or premium cuts of meat for marketing, making sausage, or wrapping meats. Work typically occurs in slaughtering, meat packing, or wholesale establishments.
- O*NET code
- 51-3023.00
- Job zone
- 2
- Experience required
- None
Typical tasks
- Shave or singe and defeather carcasses, and wash them in preparation for further processing or packaging.
- Saw, split, or scribe carcasses into smaller portions to facilitate handling.
- Trim head meat, and sever or remove parts of animals' heads or skulls.
- Grind meat into hamburger, and into trimmings used to prepare sausages, luncheon meats, and other meat products.
- Trim, clean, or cure animal hides.
- Wrap dressed carcasses or meat cuts.
- Remove bones, and cut meat into standard cuts in preparation for marketing.
- Sever jugular veins to drain blood and facilitate slaughtering.
Choose a location
Salary analysis — United States
10th percentile
$33,340
25th percentile
$36,150
75th percentile
$46,870
90th percentile
$51,090
Most important skills
- Speaking2.8
- Active Listening2.6
- Critical Thinking2.4
- Social Perceptiveness2.4
- Monitoring2.3
- Operations Monitoring2.3
- Troubleshooting2.1
- Operation and Control2.1
- Quality Control Analysis2.1
- Time Management2.0
- Judgment and Decision Making2.0
- Active Learning2.0
What skills do you need?
No skill ratings are recorded for this occupation in the current O*NET release.
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Compare with Slaughterers and Meat PackersHow salary varies by location
| Location | Median | Employment | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trenton, NJ | $52,180 | 40 | 2025 |
| CO | $50,480 | 1,590 | 2025 |
| Sioux City, IA | $49,600 | 1,120 | 2025 |
| Corpus Christi, TX | $49,460 | 50 | 2025 |
| AZ | $49,020 | 440 | 2025 |
| NE | $48,910 | 5,480 | 2025 |
| KS | $48,240 | 2,170 | 2025 |
| Davenport, IA | $48,120 | 430 | 2025 |
| Dayton, OH | $48,030 | 110 | 2025 |
| Denver, CO | $46,990 | 210 | 2025 |
| MT | $46,700 | 80 | 2025 |
| Minneapolis, MN | $46,670 | 100 | 2025 |
| Omaha, NE | $46,390 | 1,330 | 2025 |
| Portland, OR | $46,380 | 200 | 2025 |
| Columbia, SC | $46,170 | 150 | 2025 |
| SC | $46,000 | 250 | 2025 |
| OR | $45,980 | 360 | 2025 |
| OK | $45,970 | 1,560 | 2025 |
| MI | $45,850 | 2,920 | 2025 |
| San Francisco, CA | $45,300 | 140 | 2025 |
Career transition paths
Compare the skills of a career you hold today with Slaughterers and Meat Packers to see shared skills, target-only skills and skill overlap.
Build a transition comparisonCareer and skills data: O*NET 31.0.
Salary and employment data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, 2025 (May 2025 release).
Figures are periodic published survey snapshots, not real-time market rates.