A mortician can help to mourn friends and family members with the arrangements for the funeral. They might carry out a range of duties, such as delivering corpses to cemeteries and funeral homes, handling the embalming process, and helping with administrative work like writing obituaries and filing insurance claims. This article is all about who a mortician is, what they do, how much they earn, and so on.
Read: X-Ray Technician: All the Important
Duties of A Mortician
For those working as morticians, the following duties are typical:
- Plan funerals and viewings in conjunction with the friends and relatives of the dead.
- Transporting deceased people to cemeteries, funeral houses, and crematories
- Helping family members with administrative procedures like writing obituaries, filing life insurance claims, and transferring pension and retirement monies are all examples of what you can do.
- Perform embalming duties or supervise an embalmer who has been contracted to prepare bodies for viewings and funerals.
- Get funeral homes ready for viewings and funerals
The Job a Mortician Does
There are numerous distinct tasks and responsibilities inside a funeral home. A mortician may handle all funeral-related duties in smaller funeral homes as opposed to bigger funeral homes, which may include both an embalmer and a funeral director. Morticians handle all the tasks involved in getting ready for funerals and viewings while working with the friends and relatives of the deceased. They consult with the surviving family members to determine the ideal time, date, and funeral preparations.
In order to lessen the strain on bereaved family members, morticians handle a large portion of the work during funerals. The mortician arranges for the body to be transported to the funeral home if the dead passed away in another state. Once there, the mortician may handle embalming duties or may supervise a staff embalmer’s work. If the family chooses cremation, the mortician may also make arrangements with a crematory. The mortician takes the body to a cemetery for burial after the funeral.
A mortician’s assistance with documentation relating to deaths for friends and family is another crucial responsibility. The funeral director might assist in writing obituaries and arranging for their publication, or he or she might support heirs in making life insurance claims. The mortician may assist beneficiaries in transferring pensions, bank accounts, and retirement funds to living people in some funeral homes. The mortician may also be in charge of all financial and billing duties, working with clients to set up payment schedules and billing choices.
Regular Work Hours
Morticians have full-time schedules and frequently put in extra hours. The profession of a mortician is not a 9-5 role—morticians are on-call often to address crises at all hours of the day and all days of the year. They might have to work over holidays to make sure the bodies received are maintained before funerals, or they might have to leave in the middle of the night to carry a body to the funeral home.
Future Job Growth
The Baby Boomer generation, which is now retired or almost retired, was one of the biggest in recent memory. The need for morticians is anticipated to rise in the next decades as a result of the big, aging population since more people will be required to assist with end-of-life arrangements for a huge population.
Employers of Ordinary
A funeral home is typically where morticians get employment. Some individuals might also have their own modest funeral homes and work as both embalmers and funeral directors.
Getting Started as a Mortician
To become a mortician, you must have a degree in mortuary science from an accredited institution. Despite the possibility of bachelor’s degree programs, the bulk of these programs only results in associate degrees. The usual minimum amount of education required to work as a mortician is an associate’s degree. In college, you can take classes in business law, grief counseling, funeral service management, and embalming to learn how to handle all duties associated with funeral services.
After earning a degree in mortuary science, aspiring morticians must sign up for an apprenticeship program to gain practical experience working under a seasoned funeral director, mortician, or embalmer. Normally, the length of this apprenticeship program is one to three years. The majority of mortuary science programs work to aid students in locating apprenticeships when they graduate.
State-specific criteria for licensing vary, but sometimes include earning an associate’s degree in addition to one to three years of experience working as an apprentice. Once you get your license, you can work as a mortician for local funeral homes. To keep your license throughout your career, you might need to have the ability to stay up to date on all new techniques employed in your line of work.
Data regarding Mortuary Pay
To help you learn more about this career, we’ve provided the information below. While the editorial content and advice are based on our research, the salary and growth information on this page is taken from recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average annual salary per year is $52,990 while the average wage per hour is $25.
How do Mortician pay rates compare to other professions?
The average annual wage for morticians is $52,990, or $25 per hour, based on the most recent data on employment across the US. As a result, it is a higher pay scale. They might only make $36,250 when they first start out or $17 an hour depending on the state you live in.
How has the increase of jobs for Morticians compared to other jobs?
33,200 people will be employed in career nationwide by 2024, a change of 2,100 jobs. This represents a 6.8% change in growth over the following 10 years, giving the career a below-average growth rate nationally.
