Vet tech salary in 2026: what clinics pay, and how to set yours.

Veterinary technicians are the hardest seat to fill in most clinics, and pay is the first thing candidates compare. This guide pulls together the most reliable public numbers on what vet techs, assistants and veterinarians earn, then shows how an owner or practice manager can turn them into a pay range that holds up. Every figure links to its source.

The national benchmark: what vet techs earn

The best free benchmark is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. Its latest release covers May 2025.

• The median annual wage for veterinary technologists and technicians was $47,380, or $22.78 an hour (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• The lowest 10% earned less than $35,710, and the highest 10% earned more than $63,180 (same source).
• Inside veterinary services, the industry where most clinics sit, the median was $47,170. Educational services paid more, at $52,200 (same source).
• There were about 131,400 vet tech jobs in 2025, and 89% of them were in veterinary services (same source).

For context, the median for all US occupations was $50,980 in May 2025, so the typical vet tech still earns less than the typical American worker (BLS). That gap is part of why turnover is so hard to fix with perks alone.

How the rest of the team compares

A pay structure only makes sense next to the roles around it. Here are the May 2025 medians for the clinic's core jobs:

Role	Median annual wage (May 2025)	Source
Veterinarians	$130,100	BLS OOH
Veterinary technologists and technicians	$47,380	BLS OOH
Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers	$38,150	BLS OOH (similar occupations table)
Animal caretakers (kennel, grooming and similar)	$35,360	BLS OOH

Two things stand out. First, the gap between an assistant and a credentialed tech is roughly $9,200 a year at the median (calc). If your clinic pays both roles about the same, you are giving people little reason to earn the credential. Second, new veterinarians are expensive and getting more so. AVMA reports that 2026 graduates in full-time private-practice jobs averaged $133,056 in starting pay (AVMA News, Oct 8, 2026). Every task a skilled tech can legally take off a DVM's plate is worth more than it used to be.

Demand is not going away

BLS projects vet tech employment to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3% average for all occupations, with about 13,400 openings a year (BLS OOH). Most of those openings come from people leaving the field or changing jobs, not from new positions. In plain terms: you will keep competing for the same people, and you will keep losing some of them.

Why national numbers are only a starting point

A national median hides big local differences. Cost of living, nearby specialty and emergency hospitals, corporate groups and even university hospitals all move the local rate. Before you set a range:

1. Pull your state and metro numbers. BLS publishes OEWS wages by state and metro area for the vet tech code (SOC 29-2056). Start from the OEWS tables page and choose your state or metro area.
2. Use the right percentile. Use the 25th to 50th percentile for new graduates and the 50th to 75th for experienced, credentialed techs with skills you rely on (dentistry, anesthesia, client education).
3. Adjust for the date. OEWS reflects May 2025 pay. When you budget for 2027, add whatever wage growth you have actually seen in local offers since then. Don't guess a national figure.
4. Check what you're competing with. Read 10 to 15 current local job posts, especially from emergency and specialty hospitals, and note the posted ranges. Many states now require pay ranges in job posts, which makes this easier than it used to be.

Building a pay ladder techs can see

The clinics that keep techs tend to make the path to more money visible. A simple, defensible structure:

• Three to four levels, such as assistant, credentialed tech, senior tech and lead or specialty tech.
• A written skill list for each level. Examples are anesthesia monitoring, dental radiographs, inventory ownership and training new hires. Moving up is tied to skills you can check off, not just time served.
• A range for each level, not a single number. Anchor the midpoint of each range to your local percentile research.
• One review date a year for everyone, plus an off-cycle raise when someone earns a credential or masters a new skill.

Share the ladder with the team. Pay that people can see and plan for tends to work better than surprise raises, and it makes conversations with your best people shorter and calmer.

Benefits and the total offer

Base pay is what candidates compare first, but the total offer decides close calls. A few levers cost less than they're worth:

• Credentialing support. Pay for exam fees and study time. It is cheaper than a recruiting fee, and it builds the pipeline for your credentialed roles.
• Continuing education allowance with paid days to use it.
• Predictable schedules. In a field with evening and weekend work, publishing schedules further ahead is a benefit people notice (BLS notes many techs work evenings, weekends or holidays).
• Tax-advantaged education help. Under IRS Section 127, a written educational-assistance plan can pay up to $5,250 a year per employee tax-free, including student-loan payments (IRS FS-2026-10). Ask your CPA before adding it.

What it costs to get pay wrong

Pricing a role too low rarely saves money. When a tech leaves, you pay for the open shifts, the overtime and lost appointments while you hire, and then the months it takes a new hire to get up to speed. Run that math with your own numbers before you decide a $1 or $2 an hour raise is too expensive. If you want a quick check, compare a year of a $1.50 raise for one tech (about $3,100 for a full-time schedule of 2,080 hours, calc) with what one lost week of tech-supported appointments brings in at your clinic.

A 30-minute pay audit you can run this month

1. List every team member with role, hourly rate, credential and years in the role.
2. Add the BLS state or metro 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles for each role.
3. Flag anyone below the 25th percentile for their role, and any credentialed tech paid within $1 an hour of an assistant.
4. Fix the biggest gaps first, starting with your highest-risk people: the ones you would struggle most to replace.
5. Write down your pay ladder and share it at the next team meeting.

None of this needs a consultant. It needs an afternoon, the BLS tables and a willingness to have a few direct conversations.

FAQ

Keep reading

• How to raise your vet clinic’s prices without losing clients
• Selling your vet practice: corporate vs. private buyer
• Issue No. 1: Vet prices, slowest rise since 2021

Sources

All sources accessed October 16, 2026 (PT). Figures marked calc are Vet Rounds arithmetic on the linked data.

• www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/veterinary-technologists-and-technicians.htm
• www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/veterinarians.htm
• www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/animal-care-and-service-workers.htm
• www.avma.org/news/new-veterinary-graduates-face-rising-debt-lower-real-income
• www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes292056.htm
• www.irs.gov/newsroom/updates-to-frequently-asked-questions-about-educational-assistance-programs

Disclosure: Researched with AI tools. Written, edited and fact-checked by Matthew C. and our editorial team. Nothing here is clinical, legal or tax advice. Spot an error? Email hello@veterinaryrounds.com and we’ll correct it.