Best degree programs for Slaughterers and Meat Packers, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 10 schools train Slaughterers and Meat Packers. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $40,130 median wage, 69,950 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 10 schools train slaughterers and meat packers, graduating 48 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter. The job pays a median of $40,130 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About slaughterers and meat packers
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.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 12.0506 | 48 | 100.0% | 10 | $25,404 | $13,000 |
Top 10 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwest Wisconsin Technical College Fennimore, WI Public · 1 feeder programs | 12 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 66% | — | — |
| 2 | Bridgerland Technical College Logan, UT Public · 1 feeder programs | 7 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 75% | — | — |
| 3 | Madison Area Technical College Madison, WI Public · 1 feeder programs | 7 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 29% | — | — |
| 4 | Central Lakes College - Brainerd Brainerd, MN Public · 1 feeder programs | 5 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 53% | — | — |
| 5 | GateWay Community College - Central City Phoenix, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs | 5 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 55% | — | — |
| 6 | Ridgewater College Willmar, MN Public · 1 feeder programs | 4 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 50% | — | — |
| 7 | Eastern Oklahoma State College Wilburton, OK Public · 1 feeder programs | 3 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 27% | — | — |
| 8 | North Dakota State College of Science Wahpeton, ND Public · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 55% | — | — |
| 9 | Walters State Community College Morristown, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 33% | — | — |
| 10 | Tennessee College of Applied Technology - Elizabethton Elizabethton, TN Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter | 81% | — | — |
What slaughterers and meat packers earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsinlimited | $37,510 | 2,620 | 1.98× | 2 | 19 |
| Minnesotalimited | $43,360 | 2,820 | 2.12× | 2 | 9 |
| Utahlimited | $44,040 | 560 | 0.72× | 1 | 7 |
| Arizonalimited | $49,020 | 440 | 0.30× | 1 | 5 |
| Oklahomalimited | $45,970 | 1,560 | 2.03× | 1 | 3 |
| Tennesseelimited | $35,790 | 650 | 0.44× | 2 | 3 |
| North Dakotalimited | $39,730 | 160 | 0.84× | 1 | 2 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- 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.
Skills
- Speaking2.8
- Active Listening2.6
- Critical Thinking2.4
- Monitoring2.3
- Active Learning2.0
- Learning Strategies2.0
- Reading Comprehension1.9
- Mathematics1.8
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service3.6
- Food Production3.4
- Production and Processing3.3
- English Language3.1
- Law and Government2.8
- Mathematics2.7
Abilities
- Arm-Hand Steadiness3.8
- Finger Dexterity3.4
- Manual Dexterity3.3
- Near Vision3.3
- Control Precision3.1
- Static Strength3.1
Core activities
- Handling and Moving Objects3.7
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials3.6
- Performing General Physical Activities3.6
- Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings3.5
- Getting Information3.4
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events3.3
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Slaughterer
Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0- Typical entry education
- No formal educational credential
- On-the-job training
- Short-term on-the-job training
Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Slaughterers and Meat Packers1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 12.0506Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Slaughterer?+
No formal educational credential is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter, which awarded 48 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Slaughterer?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Culinary Arts and Related Services. Together they graduate about 48 people a year.
How much do slaughterers and meat packers earn?+
The median is $40,130 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $33,340 at the 10th percentile to $51,090 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for slaughterers and meat packers growing?+
BLS projects a +2.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 8,400 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
10 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do slaughterers and meat packers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Meat Packer, Meat Wrapper, Meat Processor, Boning Room Worker among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 51-3023.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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