Slaughterers and Meat Packers in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,599
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$6,521
16.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,032
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$40,120
Kept after tax
$33,599
Worth in national money
$38,032
State rank
22
of 47 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Neither high nor low. Louisiana is 22 of 47 states for slaughterers and meat packers, with a middle wage of $40,120. What that is worth is the question the rest of this page answers.
- Against other work in Louisiana, this sits in the middle: 348 of 484 occupations with published pay. Solidly ordinary for the state, which is not the same as ordinary nationally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $40,120 you keep $33,599 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,032 at national prices. Here the average runs under the middle, at $36,460.
- Louisiana ranks 22 of 47 for slaughterers and meat packers at $40,120. The nominal figure is unremarkable; the adjusted figures are where the state's actual position for this occupation is determined.
- Slaughterers and meat packers ranks 348 of 484 occupations in Louisiana by median pay, in the middle bands. Within-state and national positions are separate measurements and a job commonly sits in different quartiles on each.
- Retained pay in Louisiana is $33,599 after the full tax stack, from $40,120. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,032 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $36,460 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
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Pay band: Slaughterers and Meat Packers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,890 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $40,120 |
| Top tenth earn over | $45,160 |
| This salary | $40,120 |
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 Louisiana | $33,599 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $34,416 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,615 |
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
| To match take-home only | $39,103 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,162 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Louisiana earn less than $40,120. The published range is $23,890 up to $45,160, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $33,599 take-home in Louisiana comes from $40,120. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 348 of 484.
- Two cautions on $38,032, the adjusted value of that $40,120 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Louisiana. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 348 of 484 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for slaughterers and meat packers in Louisiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $23,890 to $45,160. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $33,599, from $40,120, assumes a single Louisiana filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 348 of 484 locally, and the state ranks 22 of 47 for it.
- This $38,032 adjusted figure, worked from $40,120, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 348 of 484 in the state. The occupation ranks 348 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 $36,460, 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 — $23,890 at the tenth percentile, $45,160 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
Further than the number implies. Louisiana is cheaper than the national average, so this take-home behaves like $38,032 in national terms.
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 Louisiana's own levy, $33,599 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 47 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 Louisiana is $36,460. 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 ($23,890 to $45,160) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $38,032 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 $33,599 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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 47 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.