Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers in Maine
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,292
after federal, FICA and Maine tax
Tax takes
$6,878
17.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$33,257
Maine costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maine — 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
$39,170
Kept after tax
$32,292
Worth in national money
$33,257
State rank
21
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Maine pays this job around $39,170 at the midpoint, 21 of 50 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Against 484 occupations Maine publishes, this job lands at 440. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $39,170, tax leaves $32,292, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $33,257 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $42,600, since top earners drag the number up.
- For meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers the Maine median is $39,170, ranking 21 of 50 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 Maine, this work ranks 440 of 484 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 Maine sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers — median $39,170 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $32,292 retained, $33,257 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $42,600 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $32,590 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,170 |
| Top tenth earn over | $58,930 |
| This salary | $39,170 |
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 Maine | $32,292 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,653 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$1,374 |
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 | $37,476 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$1,662 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers in Maine earn under $39,170 and half over. The published range runs $32,590 at the tenth percentile to $58,930 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Maine the take-home figure of $32,292, from $39,170, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 440 of 484 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maine, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $33,257, the adjusted value of that $39,170 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 440 of 484 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers in Maine, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $32,590 to $58,930; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Maine is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $32,292 from $39,170. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 440 of 484 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maine, so $33,257 — the adjusted value of that $39,170 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 440 of 484 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 $42,600, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $32,590 at the tenth percentile, $58,930 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Maine sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $33,257 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Maine then takes its own share, leaving $32,292.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release 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 Maine is $42,600. 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 ($32,590 to $58,930) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maine rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Maine'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 $33,257 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 $32,292 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maine 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.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.