Kennel Attendant Salary in Missouri

Missouri's position against the national figures changes sharply after the bottom of the distribution.

The 10th percentile is the one place it leads: $28,600, 5% above the national $27,250.

From there the state falls behind — the 25th percentile, $29,300, is 2% below the national $29,820, the median is 12% below, the 75th percentile, $35,500, is 11% below the national $40,050, and the 90th percentile, $44,930, is 10% below the national $50,060.

The relative gap is widest at the middle and narrows slightly toward the top.

An offer benchmarked against the national median alone would overstate what the Missouri middle of this distribution pays.

Half of the Missouri workers counted earned between $29,300 and $35,500 — a 25th-to-75th band $6,200 wide, against $10,230 nationally.

The full span from the 10th to the 90th percentile is $16,330, 28% narrower than the national $22,810, so the Missouri distribution is tighter at both ends: the floor starts higher and the ceiling stops lower.

The median sits $1,930 above the 25th percentile and $4,270 below the 75th, closer to the bottom of its own band.

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 Missouri hourly median is $15.02, against $17.00 nationally — a 12% gap, matching the annual median.

The data set carries hourly pay at the median only, so this 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 5,820 animal caretakers were employed in Missouri across all industries — 20th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median, well above the state's 32nd-place rank by median wage.

The estimate is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period, not a count of openings, and it measures neither wages above the median nor the hiring market.

BLS publishes no state count of how many of them work in veterinary settings.

In the same release, veterinary technologists and technicians in Missouri have a median of $43,520 — $12,290, or 39%, more than the all-industry animal caretaker median on this page, 1.4 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, and not a raise anyone should expect — the two figures count different workers.