Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers
SOC 51-3022 · 2024-2034
Use hands or hand tools to perform routine cutting and trimming of meat, poultry, and seafood.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $37,404per year
- Projected openings
- 11,860
- Projected change
- +5.3%
- Usually needs
- No formal educational credential
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth
The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Monitoring
- Critical Thinking
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Coordination
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $43,573 | 380 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $43,491 | 150 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $42,393 | 330 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $41,839 | 30 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $41,263 | 510 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $40,228 | 270 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $39,449 | 120 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $39,438 | 60 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $39,377 | 760 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $39,161 | 330 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $37,828 | 110 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $37,705 | 290 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $37,524 | 3,850 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $37,364 | 1,230 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $37,192 | 90 |
| Redding MSA (Shasta County) | $36,237 | 60 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $35,806 | 240 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $35,386 | 70 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | Not reported | 50 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $35,747
- A quarter earn under
- $36,525
- Half earn under
- $37,404
- Three quarters earn under
- $41,128
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $47,091
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slaughterers and Meat Packers | $40,319 | 7,550 | +3.2% |
| Butchers and Meat Cutters | $45,301 | 23,600 | +5.3% |
| Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | $37,314 | 11,300 | -5.7% |
| Packers and Packagers, Hand | $38,076 | 104,810 | -3.1% |
| Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals | $39,687 | 26,520 | +0.6% |
| Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders | $46,641 | 2,090 | 0% |