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Pay · 31-9096

Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers earn $38,150 a year at the midpoint

Most veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers are paid close to one another — the middle is $38,150, and even the ends, $30,120 and $49,150, are not far off.

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$38,150median a year · United States
$18.34an hour $40,340average 126,580people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$35,66025th $38,150median $45,71075th
$30,12010th percentile $49,15090th percentile
$35,660a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$49,770best-paying state · Rhode Island
$30,360lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+30%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $35,660, is within 7% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $49,770 in Rhode Island and $30,360 in Mississippi — a gap of $19,410 a year.

Veterinary assistant earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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Veterinary assistant wages by state

The 48 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.64 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Rhode Island $49,770 $35,510 $35,510 — $50,130 380
District of Columbia $49,080 $46,570 $46,570 — $72,840 240
Massachusetts $46,670 $35,460 $35,460 — $63,130 2,130
California $46,260 $37,800 $37,800 — $57,940 16,080
New Jersey $46,160 $36,720 $36,720 — $57,670 3,270
Maine $45,510 $37,380 $37,380 — $59,790 690
Minnesota $45,280 $36,410 $36,410 — $49,060 1,450
Maryland $44,770 $37,150 $37,150 — $60,710 2,220
New York $44,750 $36,450 $36,450 — $53,460 5,790
Oregon $44,370 $36,480 $36,480 — $49,470 3,170
Connecticut $44,250 $35,920 $35,920 — $59,950 1,390
Washington $44,150 $38,470 $38,470 — $55,050 4,380
Hawaii $44,070 $35,200 $35,200 — $49,400 570
Colorado $38,900 $35,710 $35,710 — $47,450 2,910
Montana $38,340 $29,430 $29,430 — $45,220 550
Arizona $38,250 $35,530 $35,530 — $47,460 3,340
Michigan $37,960 $30,410 $30,410 — $46,730 4,420
Florida $37,830 $31,090 $31,090 — $47,270 6,790
Utah $37,560 $31,890 $31,890 — $49,100 580
Idaho $37,530 $24,230 $24,230 — $44,730 680
New Mexico $37,500 $29,870 $29,870 — $48,310 520
Illinois $37,480 $31,550 $31,550 — $47,000 3,270
Virginia $37,450 $30,430 $30,430 — $48,580 4,810
Vermont $37,290 $30,690 $30,690 — $45,880 370
North Dakota $37,160 $33,800 $33,800 — $46,830 270
Pennsylvania $37,140 $30,010 $30,010 — $47,200 3,760
North Carolina $37,070 $28,830 $28,830 — $46,470 6,910
South Carolina $36,980 $27,390 $27,390 — $48,630 1,720
Nevada $36,920 $35,920 $35,920 — $47,910 1,380
New Hampshire $36,910 $29,160 $29,160 — $45,690 770
Wisconsin $36,850 $30,400 $30,400 — $45,630 2,200
Missouri $36,660 $30,280 $30,280 — $45,940 2,010
Indiana $36,420 $29,580 $29,580 — $44,780 2,810
Ohio $36,340 $29,330 $29,330 — $47,070 4,640
Tennessee $36,320 $30,230 $30,230 — $43,700 3,530
Nebraska $36,100 $29,930 $29,930 — $42,050 900
Georgia $35,850 $29,210 $29,210 — $44,810 4,570
Alabama $35,800 $27,970 $27,970 — $43,360 1,240
Iowa $35,720 $29,440 $29,440 — $47,220 1,380
Kansas $35,680 $28,720 $28,720 — $47,930 1,570
Oklahoma $34,850 $23,170 $23,170 — $46,810 1,740
Texas $34,850 $24,070 $24,070 — $46,890 8,440
South Dakota $34,700 $28,390 $28,390 — $36,700 250
Arkansas $34,570 $27,860 $27,860 — $42,180 1,460
Kentucky $34,140 $26,520 $26,520 — $45,430 1,840
West Virginia $32,350 $25,830 $25,830 — $38,040 730
Louisiana $30,480 $28,400 $28,400 — $37,510 1,230
Mississippi $30,360 $26,060 $26,060 — $45,440 560

Number 718 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 9% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 716 Barbers $38,210
  2. 717 Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders $38,180
  3. 718 Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers $38,150
  4. 719 Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education $38,140
  5. 720 Crossing Guards and Flaggers $38,100

A resume for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Microsoft Office softwareMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft WordMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft PowerPointMicrosoft AccessIDEXX Laboratories IDEXX CornerstoneMcAllister Software Systems AVImark
  • Held or restrained animals during veterinary procedures.
  • Monitored animals recovering from surgery and notified veterinarians of any unusual changes or symptoms.
  • Filled medication prescriptions.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Examples

Resumes made for this kind of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Neighbouring work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers$38,150
Dental assistants$48,070+$9,920 Medical Equipment Preparers$47,700+$9,550 Medical assistants$45,690+$7,540 Phlebotomists$45,230+$7,080 Medical Transcriptionists$40,410+$2,260

Veterinary assistant pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$38,147a year

What people often ask

What is a veterinary assistant’s yearly income?

A veterinary assistant makes a median of $38,150 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $35,660 and $45,710.

What is a veterinary assistant’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $18.34 an hour; the average is $40,340 a year.

What is the starting pay for a veterinary assistant?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $35,660 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $30,120.

Which state pays veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers the most?

Rhode Island, with a median of $49,770 a year.

How many people work as veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers?

About 126,580 in the United States — number 718 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $120 of what veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers earn — $38,150 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations