Kennel Attendant Salary in Iowa

Iowa sits below the national figures at every point of the distribution, but by different margins.

The gap is deepest at the bottom: the Iowa 10th percentile, $22,450, is 18% below the national $27,250.

It narrows to 9% at the 25th percentile ($27,240 against $29,820), then widens again through the middle — the median is 15% below, and the 75th percentile, $35,140, is 12% below the national $40,050.

At the top the gap narrows once more: the Iowa 90th percentile, $45,610, is 9% below the national $50,060.

A single benchmark — 15% below at the median — understates the shortfall at the floor and overstates it at the band edges and the top.

Half of the Iowa workers counted earned between $27,240 and $35,140 — a middle band $7,900 wide, against $10,230 nationally.

The full span from the 10th to the 90th percentile runs $23,160, slightly wider than the national $22,810: the Iowa 10th percentile sits $4,800 below the national one, while the Iowa 90th sits $4,450 below the national 90th, so the extra width comes from the floor dropping, not the ceiling rising.

The median sits low inside the band — $2,840 above the 25th percentile, $5,060 below the 75th.

OEWS does not publish why a distribution has this shape, and this row spans every industry, so this page does not assign it a cause.

The Iowa hourly median is $14.46, against $17.00 nationally — a 15% gap, matching the annual one.

The data set carries hourly pay at the median only, so it is the figure to hold an hourly posting against.

Before comparing a posted rate with the annual percentiles, ask how many hours a week the role is scheduled.

BLS estimates 3,480 animal caretakers were employed in Iowa across all industries, 26th among the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median — a mid-sized state workforce for this occupation.

The estimate is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period, not a count of openings, and it covers every employer, so it says nothing about how many of these jobs sit in any one setting or industry.

In the same release, veterinary technologists and technicians in Iowa have a median of $45,560 — $15,480, or 51%, more than the all-industry animal caretaker median on this page, 1.5 times as much.

The comparison sets a veterinary occupation against one that spans all industries, so it is context for someone weighing a move into technician work, not a raise anyone should expect and not a measure of what any one employer pays.