Skip to content
TryHired.
Role hub · Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers

Mortician: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of morticians earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$55,010
Hourly
$26.45
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Morticians perform various tasks to arrange and direct individual funeral services, such as coordinating transportation of body to mortuary, interviewing family or other authorized person to arrange details, selecting pallbearers, aiding with the selection of officials for religious rites, and providing transportation for mourners. The median pay is $55,010 a year ($26.45 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is an associate's degree (73% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$55,010
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
25,100
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 3 of 5
medium preparation
Most common education
Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
73% of workers

Data Government data groups this job as Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers (O*NET-SOC 39-4031.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Explore the role

Every page for Morticians

SalaryMortician salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeMortician how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What morticians do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Oversee the preparation and care of the remains of people who have died.
  2. Obtain information needed to complete legal documents, such as death certificates or burial permits.
  3. Perform embalming duties, as necessary.
  4. Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services.
  5. Remove deceased remains from place of death.
  6. Contact cemeteries to schedule the opening and closing of graves.
  7. Plan, schedule, or coordinate funerals, burials, or cremations, arranging details such as floral delivery or the time and place of services.
  8. Close caskets and lead funeral corteges to churches or burial sites.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Social PerceptivenesscoreActive ListeningcoreService OrientationcoreCoordinationSpeakingTime ManagementReading ComprehensionWritingPersuasion

Knowledge areas: Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Administrative, Administration and Management, Psychology, Personnel and Human Resources.

Tools and technology

Software morticians use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • iCIMS Talent Cloud softwareHuman resources software
  • Microsoft AccessData base user interface and query softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft Office softwareOffice suite softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft OutlookElectronic mail softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft PowerPointPresentation softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft WordWord processing softwareHot technology
  • Salesforce softwareCustomer relationship management CRM softwareHot technology
  • Belmar & Associates MortwareData base user interface and query software
  • Corel WordPerfect Office SuiteOffice suite software
  • Custom Data Systems Sterling Management SoftwareData base user interface and query software
  • FPA Software MACCSData base user interface and query software

Also called: Funeral Director, Funeral Arrangement Director, Funeral Arranger, Funeral Counselor, Funeral Family Service Assistant, Funeral Location Manager.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).