George Lawrence Jr. Clarke House · Photo: porterhse · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Butler has 3.9 jobs per working resident, and 3,538 people come in to work
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 3.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 12.9 in Milwaukee. Butler has 3,569 jobs, and 922 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Butler is better than 63% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Butler: the figures worth knowing
Butler fills up on a workday
Butler has 3,569 jobs, 3.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 4,400 people are in town, more than double the 1,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
A lot of Butler works one town over
38% of working residents work in a town that borders Butler: Milwaukee (20%), Menomonee Falls (9%) and Brookfield (9%). Next door ↓
Most Butler residents work close to home
69% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. Only 8% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 922 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Butler’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Butler’s grade up (ahead of 94% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($60,000, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Butler could be anywhere from C+ to A.
How many people are in Butler by day
On a workday 891 residents head out to work and 31 work right here.
About 4,400 people are in Butler on a workday afternoon, 151% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Near or far: the trip to work from Butler
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Where Butler’s workforce comes from
Where Butler clocks in
20% of workers
9% of workers
9% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
In Butler, 53% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Butler, 2013 → 2023: 3,372 → 3,569. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Butler’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way for Butler’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Butler workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 956 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Wisconsin: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Butler
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,030 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 79% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 7.0% of Butler households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Butler’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,545th of 6,085: where Butler ranks among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,543 | Homer GA | 2,016 | $89K | 8.5% | 3.5% | 2% | B |
| 1,544 | Halstead KS | 2,132 | $76K | 10.8% | 2.0% | 12% | B |
| 1,545 | Butler WI | 1,752 | $60K | 11.8% | 2.7% | 3% | B |
| 1,546 | Monroe Township IN | 1,656 | $70K | 3.0% | 3.1% | 5% | B |
| 1,547 | Deerwood Township MN | 1,392 | $95K | 3.1% | 2.4% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Butler, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
38% of Butler works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Milwaukee (20%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Butler workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butler | – | B | A− | 21 min | $60,000 |
| Menomonee Falls | 9% | A | B− | 21 min | $100,238 |
| Brookfield | 9% | A+ | B | 21 min | $129,548 |
| Milwaukee | 20% | C | A+ | 22 min | $54,234 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Butler’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Butler: questions
What is the median household income in Butler?
$60,000 (±$19,700) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Butler?
11.8%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Butler?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Butler work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Milwaukee (20%, 6 mi), Wauwatosa (9%, 4 mi), Menomonee Falls (9%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Butler walkable?
Butler is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 12.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Butler without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Butler, from the people who make the trip.
More of Butler
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.