Butchers and Meat Cutters in Ohio

Machined metal parts and a CNC machine in a clean manufacturing workshop.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$32,097

after federal, FICA and Ohio tax

Tax takes

$5,533

14.7% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$34,960

Ohio costs less than average

One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.

Median here

$37,630

Kept after tax

$32,097

Worth in national money

$34,960

State rank

40

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for butchers and meat cutters is on the low side in Ohio. The middle earner gets $37,630. That is 40 of 51 states, and about 6.25% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
  • Against 494 occupations Ohio publishes, butchers and meat cutters lands at 425. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
  • Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $37,630 you keep $32,097 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $34,960 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $38,880, since top earners drag the number up.
  • For butchers and meat cutters, Ohio sits in the lower band at $37,630, ranking 40 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 6.25%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
  • Within Ohio, this work ranks 425 of 494 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
  • Retained pay in Ohio is $32,097 after the full tax stack, from $37,630. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $34,960 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $38,880 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Butchers and Meat Cutters

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$26,940
Half earn under$37,630
Top tenth earn over$50,090
This salary$37,630

Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.

The same pay, somewhere else

The state median for this job

Compare with
+$318take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Ohio$32,097
Take-home in Texas$32,416
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity−$1,602

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.

What you would need there

The state median for this job

Moving to
$0$39,567
$39,567in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$37,234
Raise you would need+$1,937
Prices in Texas97 vs 92

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $37,630 as a midpoint for Ohio, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $26,940 and the ninetieth is $50,090 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Ohio's $32,097, worked from $37,630. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 425 of 494.
  • The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $34,960 uses one figure for the whole of Ohio. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 494 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 425.
  • The Ohio median of $37,630 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $26,940 to $50,090. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • The Ohio take-home of $32,097, on $37,630 for work ranking 425 of 494 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 425 of 494 in the state.
  • Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $34,960, worked from $37,630, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Ohio address, on work sitting at 425 of 494 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $38,880, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $26,940 at the bottom tenth to $50,090 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

What does this pay actually buy where I live?

Further than the number implies. Ohio is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $34,960 in national terms.

Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?

Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Ohio adds its own income tax on top — which is why $32,097 of this wage survives to your account.

Can I compare this job across every state?

All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.

How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?

The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Ohio is $38,880. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($26,940 to $50,090) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Ohio rather than a national figure.

What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?

Ohio's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $34,960 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.

What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?

Take-home of $32,097 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Ohio income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.

Is this occupation's state coverage complete?

State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.