Veterinarian Salary in Iowa

The gap between Iowa and the national figures is not steady across the distribution.

At the 10th percentile Iowa is only 2% below the national figure — $72,800 against $73,920, a difference of $1,120.

The 25th percentile gap widens to 7% ($94,640 against $101,460), then narrows again at the median to 4% ($124,610 against $130,100, a difference of $5,490).

The 75th percentile widens back out to 8% ($152,140 against $166,120), and the largest gap by far sits at the top: the Iowa 90th percentile of $168,950 is 22% below the national 90th percentile of $215,700, a difference of $46,750.

The hourly median mirrors the annual figure at 4% below, $59.91 against $62.55.

A veterinarian comparing an Iowa offer against the national top of the range should expect the Iowa distribution to fall well short of it.

The middle half of Iowa veterinarians — those between the 25th and 75th percentiles — earned between $94,640 and $152,140, a band $57,500 wide, against a national band of $64,660.

The full range is even more compressed: from the 10th percentile of $72,800 to the 90th of $168,950, Iowa spans $96,150, compared with $141,780 nationally.

The median of $124,610 sits roughly in the middle of that band.

Most of the narrowing comes from the top of the range rather than the bottom, since Iowa's ceiling falls well short of the national one while its floor stays close to it.

OEWS publishes the shape of the distribution, not the reasons behind it, so this page does not assign the narrower Iowa range to any particular kind of practice.

BLS estimates that 1,000 veterinarians were employed in Iowa, ranking 28th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median — closer to the middle of that group than to either extreme.

The figure is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period.

It is not a count of open positions, and it says nothing about how quickly any one employer fills a role, so read it as the size of the profession in the state and nothing more.

Practising veterinary medicine in Iowa requires a license from the Iowa Board of Veterinary Medicine, housed within the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Licensure rests on the NAVLE, passed at the minimum score the International Council of Veterinary Assessment sets — Iowa's own rules state no separate numeric passing score.

Both ECFVG and PAVE certify foreign-trained graduates.

An established veterinarian licensed elsewhere can apply for endorsement under section 169.10 without retaking the written exam, and licenses renew on a three-year cycle with 60 hours of continuing education.

Those steps apply the same way regardless of where a job sits in the wage distribution; the full Iowa license requirements page covers each one with its citation.