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Overview
Operate crematory equipment to reduce human or animal remains to bone fragments in accordance with state and local regulations. Duties may include preparing the body for cremation and performing general maintenance on crematory equipment. May use traditional flame-based cremation, calcination, or alkaline hydrolysis.
Until very recently, government survey data collection for Crematory Operators included the career Specialized Personal Care and Service Workers. As a result, much of the information for these careers is identical.
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Salary
Median salary: $28,420 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $24,280 and $34,880.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Crematory Operators
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
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Education pathways to this career
Education attained by crematory operators
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), crematory operators typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Education level of Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants
Only 21% of embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
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Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click a program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
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Number of Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most crematory operators? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as crematory operators. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where crematory operators earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants (ACS for all specialties)
Employment
38% of Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 38% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 89% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants and gender
With 24% women, this occupation has a lower percentage of women than 63% of careers.
Gender of Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants
Men (76%)
Women (24%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants.
Race/origin of embalmers, crematory operators, and funeral attendants
White (73% )
Black (20% )
Multiracial (3% )
Other (2% )
Asian (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
