---
title: "Butcher and Meat Cutter"
description: "Cut, trim, or prepare consumer-sized portions of meat for use or sale in retail establishments."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/butcher-and-meat-cutter"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Butcher and Meat Cutter

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-3021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-3021.00

Cut, trim, or prepare consumer-sized portions of meat for use or sale in retail establishments.

Also advertised as: Butcher; Meat Clerk; Meat Cutter; Meat Specialist; Meat Wrapper.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $40,140 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $19.30/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $29,460 to $58,110, with the middle half between $35,510 and $48,050
- **Total US employment:** 136,430
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 16,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 63/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 136,430 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $29,460 |
| 25th | $35,510 |
| 50th (median) | $40,140 |
| 75th | $48,050 |
| 90th | $58,110 |
| Mean (average) | $42,380 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $51,670 | $48,284 | 2,660 |
| AK | $50,450 | $49,287 | 230 |
| HI | $50,080 | $45,548 | 500 |
| OR | $49,360 | $47,755 | 1,540 |
| DC | $48,760 | $44,367 | 150 |
| MA | $48,430 | $45,794 | 1,480 |
| NH | $47,740 | $45,831 | 530 |
| CO | $47,490 | $46,084 | 2,200 |
| NY | $47,080 | $43,625 | 4,540 |
| DE | $47,040 | $47,130 | 250 |
| WI | $45,980 | $48,866 | 3,510 |
| AZ | $45,780 | $45,472 | 2,130 |
| VT | $45,580 | $46,530 | 370 |
| RI | $45,210 | $44,202 | 260 |
| WY | $44,820 | $48,354 | 210 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/butcher-and-meat-cutter/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/butcher-and-meat-cutter.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 143,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 144,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,400 jobs, or +1.0%. Slower than average: 1.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 16,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 69.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 20.4% |
| Some College Courses | 7.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 2.4% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare special cuts of meat ordered by customers.
- Cut, trim, bone, tie, and grind meats, such as beef, pork, poultry, and fish, to prepare in cooking form.
- Prepare and place meat cuts and products in display counter to appear attractive and catch the shopper's eye.
- Wrap, weigh, label, and price cuts of meat.
- Receive, inspect, and store meat upon delivery to ensure meat quality.
- Shape, lace, and tie roasts, using boning knife, skewer, and twine.
- Estimate requirements and order or requisition meat supplies to maintain inventories.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.26 |
| C — Conventional | 3.92 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.78 |
| S — Social | 1.89 |
| A — Artistic | 1.78 |
| I — Investigative | 1.41 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 83.1 |
| ESTJ | 76.7 |
| ISFJ | 72.9 |
| ISTP | 67.7 |
| ESTP | 62.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutter and Trimmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/meat-poultry-and-fish-cutter-and-trimmer) — median $38,300
- [Slaughterer and Meat Packer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/slaughterer-and-meat-packer) — median $40,130
- [Cook, Restaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-restaurant) — median $37,390
- [Food Preparation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-preparation-worker) — median $35,320
- [Baker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/baker) — median $37,160
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880
- [Chef](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef) — median $62,470
- [Cook, Institution and Cafeteria](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-institution-and-cafeteria) — median $37,450
- [Food Cooking Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-cooking-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $41,590
- [Food Batchmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-batchmaker) — median $42,290

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/butcher-and-meat-cutter