For practice owners, hospital administrators and small groups
Veterinary salary survey options and vet practice pay data for techs, assistants and associates
There are three veterinary salary surveys worth knowing. VHMA covers non-DVM staff and is free to members. SVA's report goes to practices that took part. The AVMA economic report covers veterinarians and costs $475 if you are not a member. Federal payroll data fills the gaps: vet techs in veterinary clinics earn a median of $22.68 an hour.
Hiring a technician or an associate this month? Pick Veterinary Technician or Veterinarian in the builder on the right and get a band and a posting range you can use today.
- P25
- $0
- P50 ยท Median
- $0
- P75
- $0
Suggested posted range
Built from public U.S. BLS OES wage data (May 2025 release), adjusted for market, seniority and company stage by the multipliers published in our methodology.
Get bands for your whole team
Get started$22.68
median hourly wage for a vet tech in a veterinary clinic, 116,050 employed
$18.24
median hourly wage for a veterinary assistant
34.9%
how far vet clinics pay health services managers below the all-industry median
$129,990
median pay for a veterinarian employed in veterinary services
Which vet salary survey to trust depends on the seat you are filling
Most independent veterinary hospitals do not need to buy a salary survey. They need a number they can defend to a credentialed tech with three offers, to a long-serving assistant asking for a raise, and in a growing list of states to whoever reads the job ad. The survey that answers one of those questions well usually answers the others badly.
VHMA's report is the strongest practice-reported source for support staff. It asks employers, not job seekers, and it breaks pay out by state, practice type and years employed. Its limits are timing and sample size: the most recent edition reflects 2023 pay from 275 practices, and some cells rest on a handful of answers. AVMA's report is the place to go for veterinarians, but it says little about the rest of your team.
The federal OEWS survey is the only free source built from what clinics actually report on payroll, and it publishes percentiles rather than one average. It counts 116,050 vet techs and 113,130 assistants in veterinary services. It is national for this industry and lands once a year. That is the gap a band adjusted for your market tier fills.
Match the source to the job
- Credentialed vet tech
- Federal percentiles for the band, VHMA for the state and tenure view.
- Assistant and kennel staff
- Federal veterinary-services figures. Kennel pay runs 9 percent under the national median.
- Practice manager
- VHMA by title, checked against the veterinary-services federal figure, never the all-industry one.
- Associate veterinarian
- AVMA or federal percentiles for the frame. The production rate and base decide the offer.
Veterinary salary surveys by publisher, price and who answers them
| Survey | Who answers | Roles covered | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VHMA Compensation and Benefits Report 2023 | Veterinary practices | Administrators, practice and office managers, receptionists, CVTs, VTSs, assistants, kennel staff, bookkeepers | Free to VHMA members; nonmember account to view | Non-DVM pay by state, practice type and tenure |
| SVA Veterinary Salary and Benefits Survey 2025 to 2026 | Veterinary practices | Receptionists, bookkeepers, managers, CVTs, assistants, non-owner DVMs | Complimentary to practices that took part; others through SVA sales | Benefits, sign-on and retention bonuses |
| AVMA Economic State of the Profession 2026 | Veterinarians | Veterinarian employment and compensation, not support staff | Free to AVMA members, $475 to non-members | Associate DVM offers and new-graduate pay |
| BLS OEWS, veterinary services | Employer payroll records | Every occupation veterinary clinics employ, with percentiles | Free | Pay scales and posted ranges you can defend |
| WageList | Built on the federal payroll data above | 75 staff roles, including veterinarian, vet tech, assistant and vet front desk, with market tiers | $99 a month or $588 a year | A band and a posting range the day you hire |
Prices and coverage as stated on each publisher's own page. SVA does not publish a price for practices that did not take part, so we do not quote one. The VHMA response counts come from AVMA News coverage of the 2023 report. For national publishers outside veterinary medicine, see our full comparison of salary survey providers, and for dental offices the dental salary survey page.
Veterinary clinic pay percentiles for five staff roles
Each bar runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile, the shaded block is the middle half, and the dot is the median. Annual wages, May 2025, veterinary services. Look at the assistant and receptionist rows: the median sits only about $2,400 above the 25th percentile, so a lot of clinics pay nearly the same rate and an offer a dollar under it will lose most candidates.
Office supervisors
11,750 employed, median $58,730
Veterinary technicians
116,050 employed, median $47,170
Veterinary assistants
113,130 employed, median $37,930
Receptionists
55,330 employed, median $37,910
Kennel and animal caretakers
33,720 employed, median $32,150
| Role | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office supervisors | $42,180 | $48,010 | $58,730 | $69,850 | $79,770 |
| Veterinary technicians | $35,630 | $38,670 | $47,170 | $57,150 | $62,200 |
| Veterinary assistants | $29,950 | $35,510 | $37,930 | $45,430 | $47,890 |
| Receptionists | $30,340 | $35,600 | $37,910 | $44,010 | $46,990 |
| Kennel and animal caretakers | $23,300 | $28,380 | $32,150 | $36,920 | $45,000 |
The vet tech hourly scale
$18.59
25th
$22.68
median
$27.47
75th
The step from median to 75th percentile is $4.79, wider than the step below it. That upper half is where credentialed techs with anesthesia, dental or emergency skills sit.
The assistant hourly scale
$17.07
25th
$18.24
median
$21.84
75th
Only $1.17 separates the 25th percentile from the median. A credential is worth $4.44 an hour at the median, which is the number to show an assistant thinking about a tech program.
Where a cross-industry salary number misprices a veterinary clinic
Veterinarians
-0.1%
Veterinary technicians
-0.4%
Receptionists
-0.3%
Veterinary assistants
-0.6%
Bookkeepers
-3.4%
Animal caretakers
-9.1%
Office supervisors
-15.5%
Health services managers
-34.9%
Median annual wage in veterinary services against the all-industry median, May 2025. Gold means veterinary clinics pay less.
What this means for your budget
Every clinical seat matches the national number within one percent: veterinarians, techs and assistants all sit almost exactly on it, because most of those people work in veterinary clinics anyway. The management seats do not. A practice manager coded as a health services manager earns $80,580 in veterinary services against $123,860 across all employers.
So a free salary site quoting the national median for "practice manager" can tell you to offer $43,000 more than veterinary clinics actually pay, and your existing manager will read the same page. Office supervisors show a smaller gap of $10,770. How the federal survey is built is on our BLS salary data page.
The veterinary practice manager salary survey number depends on the title
Practice manager is the hardest veterinary job to benchmark, because three different jobs share the name. In a two-doctor clinic it is often a senior receptionist who also runs payroll. In a 40-person hospital it is a real operations job with a budget. VHMA separates these: its 2023 survey put office managers, practice managers and hospital administrators in different rows, with medians of $65,000 for practice managers and $85,000 for hospital administrators.
Federal data splits the same way through job codes. Office supervisors in veterinary services earn a median of $58,730. Health services managers earn $80,580, and only 4,390 of them work in the industry, which tells you how few clinics have a true administrator seat. The 90th percentile for that title is $179,990, which is the multi-location group, not the solo practice.
The practical rule: write down what the job actually does before you pick a benchmark. If the manager signs vendor contracts, owns the P&L and supervises supervisors, price against the administrator row. If the manager runs the schedule and the front desk, the office supervisor row is the honest one.
Three titles, three benchmarks
- Office supervisor, federal median
- $58,730
- Practice manager, VHMA 2023
- $65,000
- Health services manager, federal median
- $80,580
- Hospital administrator, VHMA 2023
- $85,000
- Same title, all industries
- $123,860
Federal figures are May 2025 OEWS, industry 541940. VHMA figures are as reported by AVMA News, February 2024.
Federal pay rules that shape every veterinary pay scale
29 CFR 541.304(b)
Veterinarians are not on the no-salary-test list
The rule names medical doctors, dentists, podiatrists and optometrists. Veterinarians are not named, so the cautious route is the learned professional test, with a salary.
29 CFR 541.600 and 541.604
A guaranteed $684 a week, then production on top
Production pay is fine as an extra above a guaranteed weekly salary. Pure production with no guarantee fails the salary basis test.
29 CFR 541.602(a)
The base cannot shrink in a slow week
Salary must not be reduced for the quantity of work. Recover a production deficit from future bonuses, never from the base.
Part 541, searched in full
Vet techs are not mentioned anywhere
The nearest professional category, medical technologists in 541.301(e)(1), needs four years of study. Two-year credentialed techs are non-exempt.
29 CFR 778.117
Bonuses go into the regular rate
A tech on a dental or production bonus is owed overtime on the higher rate. Our FLSA overtime guide covers the math.
Posting laws
A range in the ad in covered states
Colorado from one employee, New York from four, California and Washington from 15. See pay transparency laws.
Three veterinary practices and the pay question each one actually has
Two doctors, 11 staff
Replacing a credentialed tech
The tech who left earned $20 an hour, between the federal 25th percentile and the median. Ads at $20 draw assistants, not credentialed techs. Pricing at $22.68 or above, with anesthesia skills placed in the upper half, is what gets a credentialed candidate to the interview.
Four doctors, 26 staff
Hiring the first real practice manager
A national salary site says $123,860. Veterinary clinics pay $80,580 for the same code, and VHMA puts practice managers at $65,000. Writing the duties first places this job between those two numbers and saves the owner a salary that would distort every band below it.
Three hospitals, 70 staff
Posting an associate role in Colorado
The offer is a guaranteed base plus 20 percent of production. Colorado needs a range in the ad, so the group posts the base range and names the production plan, which is set out in our guide to a veterinary production pay plan.
A vet tech salary survey number the day you post the job
VHMA publishes every two years and the AVMA report once a year. A clinic hires whenever someone leaves, usually in a hurry and usually for one of these four seats:
- 1Veterinary technician, the seat with the longest vacancy and the widest skill premium.
- 2Veterinary assistant, where a dollar an hour decides who accepts.
- 3Client service and front desk, paid almost exactly the national receptionist median.
- 4Associate veterinarian, where the base guarantee in the ad has to stand on its own.
WageList for veterinary practices
Pick the role and the market, get a band built on federal wage data with the source on every figure, and a posting-ready range in under a minute. No questionnaire, no membership, no participation deadline.
Starter is $99 a month or $588 a year on the pricing page. One technician vacancy that runs an extra month costs more than that in overtime alone.
Who buys veterinary salary data and what they do with it
Practice owners
A defensible offer for the next tech and a fair answer to raise requests. See WageList for small businesses.
Hospital administrators
Turning percentiles into a pay scale the owners will sign off on. Our guide to creating salary bands walks through it.
Small practice groups
One structure across hospitals, adjusted per market tier, with a range ready for every job posting salary range.
Veterinary salary survey questions practice owners ask
What is the best salary survey for a veterinary practice?
For staff pay, pair the VHMA compensation report with federal data. VHMA reports what practices pay non-DVM staff by state, practice type and years employed. The federal OEWS survey adds payroll-based percentiles for every role a veterinary clinic employs. For associate veterinarians, the AVMA economic report covers DVM compensation.
Is the VHMA compensation survey free?
For members, yes. The VHMA 2023 Report on Compensation and Benefits for Non-DVM Staff is a free download for VHMA members, and anyone else can register a nonmember account to view it. It drew responses from 275 practices covering 3,289 non-veterinarian staff, and it is published every two years.
How much does a veterinary technician make per hour?
Veterinary technicians working in veterinary services earned a median of $22.68 an hour in May 2025, according to BLS. The middle half earned between $18.59 and $27.47. At full time that is about $47,170 a year, almost exactly the all-industry median for the occupation.
What is the average salary for a veterinary practice manager?
It depends on the title. VHMA put the practice manager median at $65,000 and the hospital administrator median at $85,000 in its 2023 survey. Federal data for veterinary services shows health services managers at a median of $80,580 in May 2025, about 35 percent below the all-industry figure for the same title.
Are veterinary technicians exempt from overtime?
Almost never. Part 541 of the federal rules does not mention veterinary technicians at all, and the closest professional category, medical technologists, requires four years of study. Most credentialed vet techs hold a two-year degree, so they are non-exempt and owed time and a half after 40 hours, salaried or not.
How much do associate veterinarians make?
Veterinarians employed in veterinary services earned a median of $129,990 in May 2025, according to BLS, with the middle half between $101,290 and $166,220. The 90th percentile reached $216,710. Much of that spread comes from production pay, so the percentage and the base guarantee decide where a given offer lands.
What percentage of production do associate vets get paid?
Practice consultants writing in dvm360 commonly put production pay for associates between 18 and 25 percent of production, usually above a guaranteed base, and higher for emergency medicine. What counts as production matters as much as the rate, because product sales, boarding and grooming are often paid at a lower rate or excluded.
Do veterinary clinics have to post salary ranges?
In states with posting laws, yes. Colorado applies from the first employee, New York from four, and California and Washington from 15. A clinic advertising a technician or associate job there needs a good-faith range in the ad, and a production-pay associate role still needs the base range stated.
Keep going
Base, percentage and negative accrual for associates, with the federal rules.
DentalPost, SVA and DANB for dental offices.
Every national publisher compared on price and coverage.
The duties and salary tests behind every classification.