Slaughterers and Meat Packers

What slaughterers and meat packers do

Typical tasks

• Remove bones, and cut meat into standard cuts in preparation for marketing.
• Sever jugular veins to drain blood and facilitate slaughtering.
• Tend assembly lines, performing a few of the many cuts needed to process a carcass.
• Shackle hind legs of animals to raise them for slaughtering or skinning.
• Slit open, eviscerate, and trim carcasses of slaughtered animals.
• Stun animals prior to slaughtering.
• Skin sections of animals or whole animals.
• Cut, trim, skin, sort, and wash viscera of slaughtered animals to separate edible portions from offal.
• 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.

Slaughterers and Meat Packers salary

The median annual wage for slaughterers and meat packers is $40,130 (BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, national). The lowest 10 percent earn less than $33,340 and the highest 10 percent earn more than $51,090. The mean annual wage is $41,770.

The mean hourly wage of $20.00 is 2.8× the federal minimum wage of $7.25. State minimums are higher in most large states. Minimum wage by state →

Pay by percentile

Annual wage percentiles from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Percentiles are a good proxy for pay by experience.

How median, percentiles and the pay range are defined →

Projected pay for Slaughterers and Meat Packers (3, 5 and 10 years)est.

Today $40,130 → in 3 years $43,900 → in 5 years $46,600 → in 10 years $54,200 (10-year range $46,600–$62,900). The model assumes pay growth of +3.0% per year.

What drives the annual growth rate

Projected pay = current pay × (1 + annual growth)^years. The annual growth rate starts from a base wage-growth rate and adds or subtracts labor demand (BLS projected employment growth), wage momentum and AI replacement risk for each occupation. Projections are not guarantees. How it is calculated →

Outlook score for Slaughterers and Meat Packers

Each component is a percentile rank among all occupations in the same country (0–100). Weights: labor demand 25, wage momentum / openings 15, pay level 15, AI resistance 25, aging workforce 10 (Japan only), entry barrier 10.

Will AI replace Slaughterers and Meat Packers? AI replacement risk

How AI is changing this job

A written analysis for this occupation is being prepared.

AI replacement risk compares the parts of a job that are easy to hand to AI or software (processing information, documentation, repetitive computer work) with the parts that are hard to automate (physical work, working closely with people, judgment in unpredictable settings), using O*NET work activities, work context, skills and knowledge. The result is a relative position among all occupations in the country, scaled to 0–100%. Methodology →

Labor demand for Slaughterers and Meat Packers

Employment projections are from the BLS Employment Projections program (2025–35). Annual openings include both new jobs and replacement of workers who leave the occupation.

Skills, education and requirements for Slaughterers and Meat Packers

What the work involves

Important abilities

Job Zone 2 — some preparation needed (O*NET)

Difficulty of entry: ★☆☆☆☆ Easy to enter (from education, training, experience and Job Zone)

How to become slaughterers and meat packers

A step-by-step guide for this occupation is being prepared. The education, training and experience data above show the typical path.

Career path and how to earn more as slaughterers and meat packers

Career-path guidance is being prepared. Pay by percentile is shown in the Pay section.

Related occupations