The Datum Report

Occupation 6138 · Caring, leisure and other service occupations

Undertakers, mortuary and crematorium assistants

Half of full-time undertakers, mortuary and crematorium assistants in the UK earn more than £30,894 a year, and half earn less.

Undertakers, mortuary and crematorium assistants make funeral arrangements for clients, prepare the deceased for burial or cremation, and supervise and assist the proceedings of funerals.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements although some employers require candidates to possess GCSEs/S grades. A full driving licence is often required. Training is provided on-the-job. Professional qualifications in funeral directing and embalming are available.

What the work involves

• collects body of deceased and assists with the completion of necessary documents
• interviews relative or representative of the deceased to discuss preparations for funeral
• liaises with cemetery or crematorium authorities on behalf of client
• washes and injects body with sterilising fluid to prevent deterioration prior to funeral, and applies cosmetics, wax and other materials to restore normal appearance
• provides hearse and funeral cars and leads funeral procession
• controls the operations of crematoriums and cemeteries and processes legal documentation

Also called

Crematorium technician · Embalmer · Funeral director · Pall bearer · Undertaker

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for undertakers, mortuary and crematorium assistants, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 8 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Ambulance staff (excluding paramedics) · Care escorts · Care workers and home carers · Dental nurses · Houseparents and residential wardens · Nursing auxiliaries and assistants · Senior care workers