Butchers and Meat Cutters in Pennsylvania
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$31,809
after federal, FICA and Pennsylvania tax
Tax takes
$6,531
17.0% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$32,625
Pennsylvania costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Pennsylvania — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
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
$38,340
Kept after tax
$31,809
Worth in national money
$32,625
State rank
33
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Pennsylvania pays butchers and meat cutters around $38,340 at the midpoint, 33 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 492 occupations Pennsylvania publishes, butchers and meat cutters lands at 427. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $38,340, tax leaves $31,809, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $32,625 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $41,780, since top earners drag the number up.
- For butchers and meat cutters the Pennsylvania median is $38,340, ranking 33 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Pennsylvania, this work ranks 427 of 492 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.
- Because Pennsylvania sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for butchers and meat cutters — median $38,340 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $31,809 retained, $32,625 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $41,780 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
| Lowest tenth earn under | $29,000 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $38,340 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,130 |
| This salary | $38,340 |
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
| Take-home in Pennsylvania | $31,809 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,986 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,320 |
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
| To match take-home only | $36,875 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,597 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $38,340 as a midpoint for Pennsylvania, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $29,000 and the ninetieth is $58,130 — 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 Pennsylvania's $31,809, worked from $38,340. 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 427 of 492.
- One number stands for prices across all of Pennsylvania, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $32,625, the adjusted value of that $38,340 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 427 of 492 in the state.
- The Pennsylvania median of $38,340 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $29,000 to $58,130. 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 Pennsylvania take-home of $31,809, on $38,340 for work ranking 427 of 492 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 427 of 492 in the state.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Pennsylvania, so $32,625 — the adjusted value of that $38,340 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 427 of 492 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $41,780, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $29,000 at the bottom tenth to $58,130 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $32,625.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Pennsylvania's own levy, $31,809 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
Yes for this one. Pay is published in all 51 jurisdictions, so a state-to-state comparison here rests on the same survey everywhere rather than on a patchwork.
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 Pennsylvania is $41,780. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($29,000) and the ninetieth ($58,130) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Pennsylvania'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 $32,625 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 $31,809 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Pennsylvania 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.