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# GRAPHIC: Meat processing workers earn an average of $15.53 per hour, with state-level variation
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/graphic-meat-processing-workers-earn-an-average-of-15-53-per-hour-with-state-level-variation/
- Published: 2021-07-21T20:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-07-21T20:30:00.000Z
- Author: Eli Hoff, Investigate Midwest
- Tags: Meat industry, Data Harvest, TP::Explainer, meatpacking, wages, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics shows meat processing workers were paid an average hourly wage of $15.53 in May 2020, its latest calculation.

Workers [experience](https://www.investigatemidwest.org/cheap-chicken-beef-came-at-a-cost-how-american-meat-plants-bred-coronavirus-hot-spots/) higher illness and injury rates compared with other manufacturing jobs, but their average wage is lower than the average wage for all manufacturing employees, at $20.08 an hour.

The 3,100 workers processing meat in Massachusetts earned the highest average hourly wage, $21.24, in the country. Louisiana, with just over 5,500 meat processing workers, had the lowest average hourly pay, at $11.89.

California had nearly 40,000 such workers, the most in the country, and they received an average hourly rate of $16.76, the 14th largest in the nation.

**Data analysis*: Data was pulled directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (selecting state data from [https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm](https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm?ref=investigatemidwest.org)). From there, three categories were used from each state, occupation codes 51-3021, 51-3022, 51-3023 for the meat processing industry. Some states didn’t have a sufficient workforce in an occupation to report data — those partial entries weren’t included in calculations.*

*Each state’s average hourly wage was calculated by finding the total hourly salary of workers in each occupation (average hourly wage x number of workers), adding those sums of each present occupation, and dividing that number by the total number of workers (total hourly wage for all occupations / total workers in all occupations).*

*The national average was calculated in the same way, but with the national equivalents of those values.*

Lead photo courtesy USDA.