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Funeral director: what the job actually is

Looking after a family and a person's body in the days after a death: arrangements, paperwork, the service, and everything in between.

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Funeral director: quick facts

Funeral director salary in Ontario: the median pay is $34.62 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years.

Median pay in Ontario
$34.62 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$21.00 to $51.28 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
3,250
Usually needs
Usually a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 62201. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Guiding a family through the first days after a death. You arrange the transfer, the paperwork, the service and the burial or cremation, and you answer the questions families do not know they have.
  • It is a people job first. A lot of the work is sitting with someone on the worst week of their year, listening and explaining what has to be decided.
  • It is also a practical job. Logistics, scheduling, vehicles, documents and a lot of details have to be right, because a mistake is not recoverable.
  • It is a regulated job in Ontario. The Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO) licenses funeral directors. It lists Funeral Director Class 1 (embalming) and Class 2 (non-embalming), plus transfer service sales representative and funeral planner licences.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 7:30 — In. Check overnight calls and today's services. One family is arriving at nine.
  2. 8:15 — Prepare the chapel for a service: chairs, flowers, music, the order of events.
  3. 9:00 — Arrangement meeting with a family. Slow down. Ask what the person was like. Explain options and costs without pressure.
  4. 10:30 — Paperwork: registrations, permits, notices. Each one has a deadline and a person who needs it.
  5. 11:30 — Phone calls with a cemetery, a clergy member, a florist and a family member who is angry and grieving.
  6. 13:00 — Lunch if you get it.
  7. 14:00 — Funeral service. You are mostly invisible: cues, doors, timing, a tissue at the right moment.
  8. 15:30 — Procession and burial or committal. Return, clean up, and write the file note.
  9. 17:00 — On-call phone in your pocket. Deaths do not respect office hours.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are steady around grief and can be present with people without needing to fix it.
  • You are organised and calm, and you care that the details are right.
  • You can explain complicated choices and costs honestly, without pressure.
  • You are comfortable with death as a normal part of life, and with the practical work around it.
  • You value a job in your own community, where families remember you for years.
You may hate this if
  • You find death, bodies or grief hard to be around. The emotional load is the job, not a side effect of it, and it builds up over years.
  • You want regular hours. Deaths happen at all hours, and on-call work and long days around services are normal.
  • You do not want your work to be a conversation people avoid. Many people find the topic uncomfortable and will tell you so.
  • You dislike the sales side. Arrangement meetings involve discussing money with grieving people, which some find difficult.
  • You need to switch off at home. Hard cases, such as a child's death, can stay with you.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Finish high school

    There is no special stream. English and communication skills, along with biology if you plan to pursue embalming, are useful.

  2. Complete funeral service education

    The BAO's licensing page lists four steps: complete funeral service education, fulfil internship competencies, pass the licensing examinations and submit a personal licence application. It says each step must be done before you can move on. Job Bank's Ontario page describes a one- to two-year college programme and a twelve- to twenty-month apprenticeship for funeral directors, and a two- to three-year college programme for embalmers.

  3. Do your internship

    The apprenticeship or internship happens in a licensed funeral home. Finding one willing to take you is the practical gate, so go and visit funeral homes and ask.

  4. Pass the exams and apply for your licence

    The BAO says entry-to-practice exams run monthly through 2026 and 2027 in Toronto with limited availability per sitting, and licences renew annually between November 1 and December 31. Confirm current dates on its site.

Where this comes from: Bereavement Authority of Ontario — Licensing for funeral and transfer service professionals · Job Bank — Funeral directors and embalmers requirements in Ontario · Bereavement Authority of Ontario — Education and training

The money

Funeral director salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$21.00
Low (hourly)
$34.62
Median (hourly)
$51.28
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 62201. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Funeral director wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • Several positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • A growing and aging population will continue to sustain demand for funeral services
  • Changing consumer preferences from traditional funerals to other options, may impact the roles of some of these professionals

Who hires for it

  • Funeral directors and embalmers work almost exclusively in the funeral services industry
3,250
people work in this job in Ontario
49%
are women (48% across all jobs)
14%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Funeral directors and embalmers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 62201). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take biology and chemistry if embalming interests you, and English, drama or communications if arrangements and services do.
  • Do volunteer hours somewhere you practise being present with people who are struggling: a seniors' residence, a hospice volunteer programme if one accepts your age, or a community service.
  • Phone a local funeral home and ask what they look for in a student. Funeral directors tend to be happy to talk.
  • Notice how you respond to difficult news and how long it stays with you.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Find out whether the subject itself is something you can sit with

About 60 minutes
  1. Read the BAO's licensing page and the Job Bank requirements page. Write down how you feel about each step, including the apprenticeship.
  2. Phone one local funeral home during office hours and ask one question: how do students find an internship, and what do they wish students knew? Keep it short and polite, and accept a no.
  3. Write down, privately, how you feel about death and how you have handled it when it touched your own life. Do not push yourself beyond what is comfortable.
  4. Sit with the list for a day, then check how you feel about the whole idea.

What it tells you. If you came away steady, curious and still interested in the practical work, this is worth pursuing further, and a conversation with a working funeral director is the next step. If it felt heavy in a way that did not lift, treat that as real information. The job asks you to carry that every week.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What is the hardest part of the job that people do not see?”
  2. “How do you look after yourself after a difficult service?”
  3. “What does your on-call schedule look like?”
  4. “How did you find your internship and what did you learn there?”
  5. “What do families need from you that they do not say?”
  6. “If you were starting again, would you choose this career?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes, many funeral homes are owned by individuals or families, but running one means a premises licence as well as personal licences, regulated by the BAO, plus vehicles, staff and trust requirements. Most people work in a funeral home for years before considering ownership.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a funeral director make in Ontario?

The median pay for a funeral director in Ontario is $34.62 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $21.00 to $51.28 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a funeral director in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions. Several positions will become available due to retirements. There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a funeral director in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a college diploma, or an apprenticeship of two or more years. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Finish high school; Complete funeral service education; Do your internship.

Where does a funeral director work in Ontario?

Funeral directors and embalmers work almost exclusively in the funeral services industry. (Job Bank.)

How many people work as a funeral director in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 3,250 people working in this job in Ontario. 49% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

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Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.