Kennel Attendant Salary in West Virginia

West Virginia trails the national figures at every percentile.

The 10th percentile, $22,050, is 19% below the national $27,250; the 25th, $25,220, is 15% below the national $29,820; and the median, $28,550, is 19% below the national $35,360 — in dollar terms the biggest gap in the distribution, $6,810.

Higher up the shortfall eases: the 75th percentile, $34,400, is 14% below the national $40,050, and the 90th, $44,810, is 10% below the national $50,060.

Two markers of how far the whole distribution sits down: even the West Virginia 75th percentile falls short of the national median, while the West Virginia 90th percentile clears the national 75th.

Half of the West Virginia animal caretakers counted earned between $25,220 and $34,400 — a middle band $9,180 wide, against $10,230 nationally.

The full 10th-to-90th span is $22,760, essentially level with the national $22,810, even though the entire range sits lower.

Inside the band the West Virginia median sits in the lower half: $3,330 above the 25th percentile, $5,850 below the 75th.

The national median runs the other way, sitting closer to its 75th percentile than its 25th.

OEWS publishes the shape of a distribution, not its causes, and this row spans every industry, so this page does not assign one.

The West Virginia hourly median is $13.73, against $17.00 nationally — a $3.27 gap, 19%, the same whole-percentage gap as the annual median.

The dataset carries hourly pay at the median only, so $13.73 is the figure to hold an hourly posting against.

Read a posted rate against the hourly median rather than the annual percentiles unless you know how the hours annualize.

BLS estimates 1,160 animal caretakers were employed in West Virginia across all industries — 43rd among the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median, and 48th when the same jurisdictions are ordered by their median wage.

The estimate is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period, not a count of openings, and BLS publishes no state count of how many of them work in veterinary settings.

In the same release, veterinary technologists and technicians in West Virginia have a median of $37,700 — $9,150, or 32%, above the animal caretaker median on this page, with the percentage taken against the animal caretaker figure.

The comparison sets a veterinary occupation against one that spans all industries, and the two figures count different workers, so treat the gap as context for weighing a move into technician work — not as a raise anyone should expect, and not a promotion path the data describes.