Kennel Attendant Salary in Kentucky

Kentucky trails the national figures across the whole distribution, but not by a constant amount.

The gap is widest at the floor: the 10th percentile, $22,600, is $4,650 or 17% below the national $27,250 — and the median's dollar gap is nearly as large, $4,640.

The 25th percentile, $27,860, sits $1,960 or 7% below the national $29,820, the smallest gap of the five in dollars.

Proportionally it is the top that comes closest: the 75th percentile, $37,890, is $2,160 or 5% below the national $40,050, and the 90th percentile, $47,290, is $2,770 or 6% below the national $50,060 — smaller percentage gaps than the median's, but dollar gaps larger than the 25th percentile's.

For someone benchmarking an offer, the dollar shortfall is about as large at the median as at the floor, and smallest at the 25th percentile.

Half of the Kentucky workers counted earned between $27,860 and $37,890 — a band $10,030 wide, slightly narrower than the national $10,230.

The full span from the 10th to the 90th percentile tells the opposite story: $24,690 in Kentucky against $22,810 nationally, because the floor drops further below the national level than the ceiling does.

The median sits $2,860 above the 25th percentile and $7,170 below the 75th, so the upper half of the band carries more room than the lower half.

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 Kentucky hourly median is $14.77, against $17.00 nationally — a gap of $2.23, or 13%, matching the annual median's shortfall.

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 6,140 animal caretakers were employed in Kentucky across all industries — 17th of the 51 jurisdictions, ranked by employment.

The estimate is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period, not a count of openings, and it covers every employer of this occupation, not a single industry.

In the same release, veterinary technologists and technicians in Kentucky have a median of $39,590 — $8,870, or 29%, more than the all-industry animal caretaker median on this page, 1.3 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 measure of what veterinary kennel work pays.

Two occupations counting different workers is what the gap is, not a raise anyone should expect for staying in the same job.