All occupations · #76 of 1,410 by volume
Slaughterers and Meat Packers
SOC 51-3023.00, in the production major group. 832 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 793 certified and 36 denied.
This rate is level with the field
Computed over 829 decided filings. The 95% interval runs up to a 6.0% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records, so this record can't be told apart from the field in either direction.
Median wage
$31,616
all PERM $103,272
Filings
832
#76 of 1,410
Approval
95.7%
field 96.8%
Median days
477
at the field median
Median offered wage
$31,616above 12%
Approval rate
95.7%ahead of 43%
Median days to decision
477 daysahead of 48%
- 5th to 95th
- 25th to 75th
- Median
- 10th and 90th
FY2024
$38,480 median · 52 certified cases
FY2025
$31,720 median · 475 certified cases
FY2026
$30,680 median · 266 certified cases
- 10th
- $26,374
- -26.5% since FY2024
- Median
- $30,680
- -20.3% since FY2024
- 90th
- $30,680
- -20.3% since FY2024
- 95th
- $36,712
- -4.6% since FY2024
These years are not measuring the same group of filings. The count moves by 9.1 times between the largest year and the smallest, so a change in the ladder is at least partly a change in which employers filed rather than a change in what the work pays. Read the shape, not the difference.
| Fiscal year | Cases | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | 52 | $35,880 | $35,880 | $35,880 | $38,480 | $38,480 | $38,480 | $38,480 |
| FY2025 | 475 | $31,616 | $31,616 | $31,616 | $31,720 | $31,720 | $31,720 | $31,720 |
| FY2026 | 266 | $21,840 | $26,374 | $30,680 | $30,680 | $30,680 | $30,680 | $36,712 |
Who files this job
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, and the states the work sits in.
Sponsors filing it
- Case Farms Processing, Inc 681 filings · 100.0% approved
- CLEMENS FOOD GROUP LLC 108 filings · 72.0% approved
- Ganaderos Borges, Inc. 23 filings
- Midway Food Market, Inc. 6 filings
- Indiana Packers Corporation 4 filings
- gr morales contractor llc 3 filings
The employers with the most applications under this code. 825 of 832 filings, 99% of the total.
Firms filing it
- WA Law Group, LLC 578 filings · 100.0% approved
- WORK FORCE LLC 88 filings · 65.5% approved
- Karen M. Ocasio, Law Office 23 filings
- Farmer Law PC 19 filings
- Jackson Walker LLP 6 filings
- Barnes & Thornburg LLP 4 filings
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 718 of 832 filings, 86% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Ohio 447
- North Carolina 234
- Michigan 107
- Puerto Rico 23
- Texas 6
- Georgia 4
The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 821 of 832 filings.
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 76 of 1,410 by volume: 75 filed at least as many filings, and 1,334 filed no more.
Other production roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #62 HelpersProduction Workers 1,002 filings · 80 denied
- #101 Team Assemblers 523 filings · 12 denied
- #38 Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers 1,797 filings · 14 denied
- #24 Team Assemblers 2,504 filings · 5 denied
- #16 Helpers--Production Workers 3,399 filings · 40 denied
- #3 Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers 9,306 filings · 46 denied
Reading the wage
This is the median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to.
What these numbers don't say
- The code is the identity
- Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
- A median isn’t an offer
- It's the middle of every wage committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
- Approval isn’t about the occupation
- The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- Every case in DOL's disclosure files carries a decision date, so a case still waiting is in none of these counts. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover
DOL's FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q4 and New Form FY2024 Q4 and FY2024 Q4 PERM disclosure files, unioned and de-duplicated by case number: 373,939 cases. Every case in them carries a decision, so nothing here counts what’s still pending. How each figure is built, and what it can and can't answer, is set out in the methodology.
Weighing an offer?
Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.
Setting one?
All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest