Look after families on the worst week of their lives, and handle everything they cannot.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Licensed director
$55,010
Apprentice or new
$33,350
Manager or owner
$88,620
The national median is $55,010 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $33,350. The federal wage survey counts morticians, undertakers and funeral arrangers as one group, and it counts people who are employed, so funeral home owners taking a share of the business are largely outside the figure.
About $15 to $20 an hour
One to two years of supervised work after school, in most states
The apprenticeship, called a residency or internship in some states, is paid. It is low pay for long hours, and it is when most people find out whether they can actually do this work.
$88,620 a year
Managers of busy homes and licensed directors who also embalm
Holding both a funeral director license and an embalmer license makes you far more useful to a small firm and is the usual route to the top of the pay range. Owning the home is a different kind of money again, and a different kind of risk.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a two year mortuary science degree at a community college, both sections of the National Board Examination in arts and sciences, the state law exam and licence fee, and a couple of suits you can be seen in. The high end is a private mortuary college, which charges considerably more for exactly the same licence. Debt here is small compared with most licensed careers, and funeral homes sometimes pay tuition for an apprentice who commits to staying. File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), because a Pell Grant covers a lot of a community college mortuary program.
Debt here is small compared with most licensed careers. File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid): a Pell Grant covers a lot of a community college mortuary program, and funeral homes sometimes pay tuition for an apprentice who commits to staying.
A company car
Many homes give directors a vehicle, because you are making removals at 3am.
On-call pay or time back
Being on call overnight is normal. Good employers pay for it or give you the day after.
Health insurance and retirement
Standard at established homes and at the corporate-owned chains.
Steady demand
This is not a business that has a slow year. It does not follow the economy.
A path to ownership
Plenty of directors buy the home they worked in when the owner retires.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Short school, then a paid apprenticeship, then two exams and a state license.
Finish high school
Grade 12
Biology, chemistry and English. Any part-time work dealing with the public helps more than you would think.
Mortuary science degree
2 years, sometimes 4
An associate degree from a program accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education. Anatomy, embalming, restorative art, funeral law, grief counseling and small business. Several programs run at a distance with on-campus lab blocks.
Pass the National Board Examination
Near the end of school
The national exam from the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards, in two parts: arts and sciences. Nearly every state requires it.
Apprenticeship
1 to 2 years
One to two years working under a licensed director, with a set number of funerals and embalmings recorded and signed off.
State license
Year 3 to year 5
Pass your state's law exam, file your paperwork and get licensed. Then keep up continuing education every renewal.
Biology and anatomy
Embalming is applied anatomy and chemistry. This is not a metaphor.
Chemistry
You will handle preservative chemicals and need to understand them.
English and public speaking
You write obituaries, read them aloud, and speak to rooms full of grieving people.
Business or accounting
Most funeral homes are small businesses, and directors sell, invoice and order.
All fifty states license funeral directors, embalmers, or both, and the rules are set state by state. Most want a degree from a program accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education, a pass on the national exam, a supervised apprenticeship and a state law exam. Some states are stricter: Ohio and Minnesota, among others, require a bachelor's degree. A few states license one combined funeral director and embalmer credential while others split them. Licenses do not automatically move across state lines, so check your state board before you pick a school, and check it again before you move.
Community and technical colleges
The most common and cheapest route. Around fifty accredited programs run across the country.
Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science
A specialist college in Ohio offering an associate degree, a bachelor's degree and a distance option.
State university programs
A handful of public universities run mortuary science degrees, which matters if your state requires a bachelor's.
Distance programs with lab blocks
Several accredited programs let you study online and come to campus for the embalming laboratory. Useful if you are already working at a funeral home.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Embalmer license
A separate license in many states. Holding both makes you the person a small home cannot run without.
Crematory operator certification
Short course and exam. More than half of families now choose cremation, so this is quickly becoming standard.
Certified Funeral Service Practitioner
A national continuing education credential from the professional associations. Signals you keep up.
Grief support training
Real training in bereavement care, not just bedside manner. Families remember who handled them well.
Preneed sales license
Some states license selling funerals in advance. It is a steady part of a funeral home's income.
A part-time job at a funeral home first
Washing cars, setting chairs, helping with removals. Do it before you enroll, so you find out early.
A clean driving record
You will drive hearses and lead processions.
A second language
Funeral customs differ by community, and a home that can serve one well gets all of its work.
Knowing several faith traditions
Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Buddhist funerals all have rules and timings. Knowing them is part of the craft.
You will handle the bodies of children, of people your own age, and of people who died badly. You will be on call at 2am and calm at 8am. Funeral directors have high rates of burnout and the schedule is hard on relationships. The people who stay say the work is worth it because it is genuinely needed and genuinely helps, but go in with your eyes open and find a home that lets you take real time off.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning starts with the arrangement conference: a family across the table choosing a casket or an urn, a date, readings, flowers, and whether grandad wears the blue tie. Then the paperwork nobody sees: the death certificate, the permits, the cemetery, the newspaper notice, the insurance claim. Afternoon might be a service, standing at the back, moving people quietly, driving the lead car. Evening might be a visitation. Somewhere in there a phone rings and you drive to a hospital or a house to bring someone into your care.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule says a funeral home has to give you an itemized price list before it sells you anything, and has to quote prices over the phone. It exists because families in shock used to be sold whatever the home wanted.
More than half of American families now choose cremation, and the share has climbed steadily for twenty years. That has changed the whole business: fewer caskets, more urns, more memorial services held weeks after the death.
The industry is still dominated by small independent homes, many of them run by the same family for three or four generations. Large corporate chains own a noticeable share but nothing close to a majority.
Mortuary programs teach restorative art: rebuilding features with wax, cosmetics and sculpting so a family can have an open casket after an accident or a long illness. It is graded like any other course.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.