What veterinary technicians earn, and the two credential levels BLS bundles together
BLS tracks this role under SOC code 29-2056, "Veterinary Technologists and Technicians," a title that covers two distinct credential tracks with one combined median wage. Technicians typically complete a 2-year associate's degree in veterinary technology; technologists complete a 4-year bachelor's degree in the same field. Both typically pass a credentialing exam and become registered, licensed, or certified, with the specific requirement set by the state where they work. BLS reports Associate's degree as the "typical" entry-level education for the combined occupation, which understates what technologists specifically complete, since the Handbook does not publish a separate median wage for the bachelor's-level technologist track alone.
The median annual wage for veterinary technologists and technicians was $47,380 in May 2025 ($22.78 an hour). The bottom 10% earned less than $35,710 a year, while the top 10% earned more than $63,180, a spread of roughly $28,760. That range is narrower than the spreads this site has found for several other allied health roles with an associate's degree as the entry point, but this dollar comparison does not measure the contributions of region or specialty certification.
One comparison worth naming directly: radiologic technologists and technicians also typically enter with an associate's degree and generally obtain a state license or professional certification, yet BLS reports a $80,110 median for that role, about $31,680 more than veterinary technicians earn despite a comparable entry credential. BLS does not explain the gap on either page. The wage estimates do not isolate industry funding, training or any other factor as the cause.
Within veterinary medicine itself, the credential gap runs much wider than the associate's-versus-bachelor's split covered above: veterinarians typically complete a four-year DVM after undergraduate study and take licensing examinations. Their May 2025 median of $130,100 is $84,120 above this article’s May 2025 technical-support figure; the comparison uses different survey years.
Credentials and comparisons with assistant roles
Veterinary technologists and technicians typically complete a postsecondary program, pass a credentialing exam, and hold a state registration, license, or certification depending on where they work, per BLS. Despite that formal gate, the $47,380 median sits close to two allied roles that require no degree at all: medical assistants, whose typical entry-level education is a postsecondary nondegree award, have a May 2025 median of $45,690, just $290 below veterinary technicians; dental assistants, also entering with a nondegree award, have a May 2025 median of $48,070, about $1,320 above. On this specific comparison, the extra one-to-two years of formal veterinary technology coursework and a licensing exam do not correspond to noticeably higher typical pay than assistant-level roles with a typical nondegree entry category; state rules for particular duties still vary.
BLS does not publish a causal explanation for why credential level and pay diverge here. The national medians do not establish that pet-owner payments, insurance reimbursement or institutional budgets account for the differences between occupations.
BLS separately breaks out May 2025 median wages by industry for this occupation, and the industry difference is larger than the credential-comparison gap above: educational services (state, local, and private) paid a median of $52,200, the highest of the four categories BLS tracks, followed by veterinary services itself at $47,170, social advocacy organizations at $45,970, and other personal services at $44,730, a spread of about $7,470 between the top and bottom industry.
Where the jobs are concentrated
BLS reports that veterinary services employed 89% of the 131,400 veterinary technologists and technicians working in 2025. That industry pays $47,170, the second-highest of the four categories BLS tracks, about $5,030 (roughly 11%) below the highest-paying category, educational services, at $52,200, which employed only about 4% of the workforce. Social advocacy organizations and other personal services, the two lowest-paying categories, each employed roughly 1%. In practical terms, the setting employing the vast majority of the workforce pays close to, not far below, the top of what BLS tracks for this occupation. That gap is wider than the same comparison for veterinarians, where 83% of the workforce works in an industry just $1,770 below the top category, versus the $5,030 gap here.
BLS also states that veterinary technologists and technicians "have one of the highest rates of injuries and illnesses of all occupations," a direct quote from the Handbook's Work Environment section, tied to handling scared or aggressive animals during exams, restraint, and euthanasia procedures. BLS does not attach a specific injury-rate number to that statement on this page; it is a comparative claim about the occupation's standing relative to others, not a quantified figure this site can independently verify against a separate BLS injury dataset for this specific title.
Job outlook, and how it compares across the pet-care field
BLS projects 9% employment growth for veterinary technologists and technicians from 2025 to 2035, classified as much faster than the roughly 3% average projected across all occupations, taking the occupation from 131,400 to 143,800 jobs and adding an estimated 12,300 positions. BLS also projects about 13,400 openings a year on average over the decade, a figure driven mostly by the need to replace workers who leave the occupation entirely or exit the labor force, rather than by net new job creation alone.
BLS attributes the growth mainly to rising numbers of pet-owning households and continued increases in spending on pet care, along with expanding treatment options that require more diagnostic and nursing support per animal. That is a demand-side projection about the pet-care industry as a whole, not a forecast about pay: nothing in the BLS growth projection implies the credential-versus-pay gap described above will close, since faster hiring and higher wages do not necessarily move together within the same occupation.
Readers comparing veterinary care pay against other associate's-degree or nondegree allied health roles can also see this site's guides to radiology tech salary and medical assistant salary for two directly comparable BLS-tracked occupations.