Break down carcasses and cut meat for grocery stores and butcher shops. Learn on the job, and unionized at big chains.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
An apprenticeship: you are hired by a sponsor, paid while you learn on the job, and go to class for a few weeks at a time. Every fact here is from Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) and the Ontario government. See every Ontario trade side by side
You are paid from your first day. Over the 3,460 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $62,107 before tax while you train, and most sponsors pay more as your skills grow.
The trade on Skilled Trades Ontario's site(opens in a new tab)
Still in high school? In Grade 11 or 12, with at least 14 credits and age 15 or older, you can start an apprenticeship through co-op placements and earn credits at the same time. Ask your school's OYAP recruiter, guidance counsellor or co-op teacher. Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)(opens in a new tab)
Not ready to find a sponsor? Free pre-apprenticeship programs (up to a year at a college or community agency, tools and books covered, with a work placement) get you ready and in front of employers. Employment Ontario helps you apply. Pre-apprenticeship training(opens in a new tab)
Ontario sets no percentage of full pay for apprentices. Your sponsor agrees your wage with you, and it can never be below the minimum wage: $17.95 an hour from 1 October 2026. Source (opens in a new tab)
The median pay is about $42,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $32,000 at the lower end to about $58,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 3 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
From nothing up to about $4,800, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$42,000
Lower end
$32,000
Upper end
$58,000
Job Bank's national median is $20 an hour, about $42,000 a year full time. The low is $15.25 and the high is $28 an hour. Unionized grocery chains often add a pension. Owners of a butcher shop earn whatever the business makes, with the risks of a small business.
$24.23 an hour
The median in British Columbia, the highest in Canada
Alberta ($22.00) and Ontario ($21.75) follow, and Manitoba is lowest at $17.00. Most people start wrapping and stocking in a grocery meat department, and overtime around holidays adds up.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $4,800
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Most butchers finish training with no debt at all. The low end is zero: you are paid from day one as a trainee, and many employers supply the knives, steel and cut resistant gloves. The high end is a college meat cutting certificate of a few months plus your own set of knives. Retail meat cutter is not a Red Seal trade, so the federal Canada Apprentice Loan does not apply, but on this route there is very little to borrow for anyway.
Retail meat cutter is not a Red Seal trade, so the federal Canada Apprentice Loan does not apply. Most butchers finish training with no debt at all.
Union membership
Grocery chains like Loblaws, Sobeys and Safeway are largely unionized through UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers).
Pension and health plan
Common at unionized stores, rare at small shops.
Staff discount on groceries
Steady, year-round work
People buy meat every week.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Mostly learned at the block. A voluntary apprenticeship or a short college certificate can speed it up.
High school
Grade 12
Grade 12 is usually asked for. A part-time job in a grocery meat department is the best head start.
Meat counter or cutting-room helper
6 to 12 months
Wrapping, stocking, cleaning, grinding. Then simple cuts under supervision.
Apprenticeship or college certificate (optional)
1 to 2 years
Ontario has a voluntary Retail Meat Cutter apprenticeship (trade code 245R). Saskatchewan has a voluntary Meat Cutter trade. BC (British Columbia) certifies meat cutters through SkilledTradesBC. Some colleges run short meat-processing programs.
Full cutter
2 to 3 years
Breaking primals into retail cuts, boning, trimming, portioning, pricing, ordering. Several years to get fast and waste little.
Department manager or your own shop
5 years and up
Running the counter, ordering and staff, or opening a specialty butcher shop.
Food and nutrition or culinary
Handling food safely.
Biology
Anatomy is the job. You cut along muscles and joints.
Math
Yield, pricing and weights.
Co-op placement
In a grocery store meat department.
You do not need a licence to cut meat anywhere in Canada. Ontario's Retail Meat Cutter apprenticeship is voluntary and has no certifying exam; graduates get a Certificate of Apprenticeship. Saskatchewan's Meat Cutter trade is also voluntary, and BC (British Columbia) issues certification through SkilledTradesBC. The rules that do apply are food safety rules: provincial food-handler certification is required or expected at most employers, and health inspectors visit the counter.
Quebec has a full vocational diploma for retail butchery, and a government workplace apprenticeship if you would rather learn on the job.
Secondary III courses
From age 16
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) does not need a high school diploma. At 16 you need Secondary III language, second language and math. From 18, the general development test is another way in.
DEP in Retail Butchery (5268, or 5768 in English)
About 8 months
900 hours of cutting, food safety and customer service. Offered in French in many regions. In English at the Pearson Adult and Career Centre in Montreal.
Or learn on the job
About 18 months
Get hired as an apprentice at 16 or older and train with an experienced butcher through the PAMT (workplace apprenticeship program). With no experience it takes about 18 months.
Work as a butcher
Ongoing
Grocery chains and specialty butcher shops. No licence or certificate is required to work as a retail butcher in Quebec.
Qualification certificate, if you want it
Optional
Quebec issues a voluntary butcher certificate at the end of the apprenticeship. With 3 to 5 years in the trade you can have your skills assessed for it instead.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Whole-animal butchery
Breaking sides of beef, pork and lamb from scratch. Specialty shops look for it.
Sausage and charcuterie
Curing, smoking, sausage making. High-margin products.
Dry aging and custom cuts
Premium steakhouses and shops.
Department management
Ordering, margins, scheduling. The step up at a chain.
Food safety certification
A provincial food-handler certificate is cheap and expected.
A cook's eye
Customers ask how to cook it.
Cold tolerance
The cutting room sits near 4 degrees.
Strength and a good back
Quarters of beef are heavy.
Hunting or farm background
Common in the trade, useful for game processing.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start at 6 or 7am in a cold room. Sharpen knives, check the case, cut and tray the day's steaks, roasts and ground beef. Break down primals from the delivery. Serve customers at the counter, take custom orders, answer cooking questions. Grind, wrap, price, restock. Clean everything at the end, with sanitizer and a hose. Saturdays and the days before holidays are the crunch.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank projects a moderate risk of shortage for retail butchers through 2033. About 14,400 people work as retail butchers, and the median retirement age is 65, so retirements are opening jobs. Its 3-year ratings are more mixed: limited in 3 provinces and territories, moderate in 2 and good in 2.
Meat is cut at about 4 degrees Celsius to keep bacteria down. Butchers wear layers, cut-resistant gloves and steel-toe boots on wet floors all shift.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Personal, food and outdoor trades first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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