Kennel Attendant Salary in South Dakota

South Dakota's position against the national figures changes across the distribution.

At the bottom the two are level: the 10th percentile, $27,260, sits at the national $27,250.

Above that the state falls behind — the 25th percentile is 4% below the national $29,820, the median 14% below, and the 75th percentile, $35,370, is 12% below the national $40,050.

The 90th percentile, $44,960, is 10% below the national $50,060.

The two scales disagree about where the gap peaks: in dollar terms the largest gap is at the top, $5,100 at the 90th percentile, while in percentage terms it is deepest at the median.

Benchmarking an offer against the national median alone misses both ends.

Half of the South Dakota workers counted earned between $28,710 and $35,370 — a 25th-to-75th band $6,660 wide, against $10,230 nationally.

The compression sits below the median: the stretch from the 25th percentile to the median runs $1,680, against $5,540 nationally, while just above the median the state is slightly wider, $4,980 against the national $4,690.

The full 10th-to-90th span is $17,700, against the national $22,810.

The median sits $1,680 above the 25th percentile and $4,980 below the 75th, in the lower half 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 South Dakota hourly median is $14.61, against $17.00 nationally — $2.39 less an hour, a 14% 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 1,110 animal caretakers were employed in South Dakota across all industries — 44th of the 51 jurisdictions by employment, behind the state's 36th-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 says nothing about pay levels.

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

In the same release, veterinary technologists and technicians in South Dakota have a median of $45,300 — $14,910, or 49%, 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 measure of what kennel work pays, and not a raise anyone should expect — the two figures count different workers.