Veterinarian Salary in New York
Veterinarians in New York earned a median annual wage of $131,830 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 estimates — $1,730, or 1%, above the national median of $130,100.
That near-match at the middle sits inside a distribution that pulls well above the national one everywhere else, most sharply at the top of the range.
BLS counts 3,390 veterinarians in New York, 6th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median.
10th percentile
$89,130
25th percentile
$105,750
75th percentile
$173,720
90th percentile
$251,000
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 state estimates — New York, SOC 29-1131 (Veterinarians). Retrieved 2026-09-16 from the BLS Public Data API.
How to read these figures
New York vs. the national figures
The New York median is above the national median by 1%. Among the 49 jurisdictions (states plus DC) where BLS publishes a veterinarian median for May 2025, it ranks 11th, and 6th by estimated employment.
Differences are whole percentages, rounded half away from zero, computed from the figures shown.
Close at the median, wide open at the top
At the median, New York and the nation are nearly identical: $131,830 against $130,100, a difference of $1,730, or 1%.
The hourly median tells the same story at $63.38 against $62.55, also 1% higher.
Away from the middle, New York pulls ahead at every percentile.
The state's 10th percentile is 21% above the national 10th, the 25th is 4% above, the 75th is 5% above, and the 90th is 16% above the national 90th percentile.
New York's 90th percentile is $251,000, against $215,700 nationally — a veterinarian benchmarking an offer against the national top of the range is comparing it to a figure well below where the New York top of the range actually sits.
A wider spread than the national distribution
The middle half of New York veterinarians — everyone between the 25th and 75th percentiles — earned between $105,750 and $173,720, a band $67,970 wide.
The same band nationally is $64,660 wide.
From the 10th percentile ($89,130) to the 90th ($251,000), New York spans $161,870, against $141,780 nationally.
The median sits nearer the floor than the ceiling of that band in New York — $26,080 above the 25th percentile but $41,890 below the 75th — and the same lean shows up nationally too, just smaller ($28,640 above the national 25th, $36,020 below the national 75th).
OEWS publishes the shape of the distribution, not what drives it, so this page does not assign the larger New York lean to any particular kind of practice.
One of the larger state workforces in the data
BLS estimates that 3,390 veterinarians were employed in New York, 6th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median, so the percentiles on this page summarize one of the larger state workforces in the dataset.
The figure is a headcount of people employed in the role 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.
What it takes to practise in New York
Practising veterinary medicine in New York requires a license from the New York State Education Department's Office of the Professions.
The NAVLE is the current licensing examination for a new applicant, and the state publishes no separate jurisprudence exam and no passing score of its own; the only alternate way to meet the examination requirement is a legacy pathway for a veterinarian who passed the pre-2000 National Board Examination plus Clinical Competency Test.
Endorsement is a narrower route still: New York's Form 4 applies only to a veterinarian licensed on the pre-2000 National Board Examination alone, and anyone who took the NAVLE — or passed the NBE and CCT — applies through the standard examination pathway instead.
The license itself is valid for life, with 45 hours of continuing education required every three years to keep the registration to practice current.
Those steps are the same wherever a job sits in the wage distribution; the full New York license requirements page covers each one with its citation.
NYS Education Dept., Office of the Professions
New York licenses veterinarians through the New York State Education Department's Office of the Professions.
The current examination required for licensure is the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE).
45 hours of acceptable continuing education every three years (Education Law Section 6704-a, effective January 2012), with a portion satisfiable through free spay/neuter services since 2017; the license itself is valid for life, and only the registration to practice is renewed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the median veterinarian salary in New York?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 estimate puts the New York median annual wage for veterinarians at $131,830, or $63.38 an hour.
Half of the veterinarians counted earned more and half earned less.
The national median in the same release is $130,100, so New York sits 1% above it — close enough at the middle that the median alone says little about how the rest of the New York range compares to the country as a whole.
How much do the highest-paid veterinarians in New York earn?
The New York 90th percentile is $251,000, meaning one in ten veterinarians counted earned more than that.
Nationally the 90th percentile is $215,700, so the top of the New York distribution sits 16% above the national top — a much wider gap than the 1% difference at the median.
At the 75th percentile the gap is smaller: $173,720 in New York against $166,120 nationally, a difference of 5%.
What does a veterinarian at the lower end of the New York range earn?
The New York 10th percentile is $89,130 and the 25th percentile is $105,750 — 21% and 4% above the national figures of $73,920 and $101,460.
Those percentiles are positions in the wage distribution, not particular jobs or career stages, so they cannot tell you what a given employer will offer.
They do show that the lower end of the New York range sits above the national one, most notably at the very bottom.
How many veterinarians work in New York?
BLS estimates 3,390 veterinarians employed in New York in the May 2025 release, 6th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median for the occupation.
That figure counts people working in the role during the survey period; it is not a count of open positions and does not measure how easy or hard any employer finds it to hire.
Do I need a New York license to work as a veterinarian there?
To practise veterinary medicine in New York you need a license from the New York State Education Department's Office of the Professions.
The route runs through the NAVLE with no separate state jurisprudence exam, and endorsement is effectively closed to anyone who took the NAVLE rather than the legacy pre-2000 exam.
The New York license requirements page on this site sets out each step and its citation; confirm current rules with the Office of the Professions before you apply.
More New York Veterinarian Resources
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 state estimates — New York, SOC 29-1131 Veterinarians (BLS Public Data API) (retrieved 2026-09-16)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 national estimates — SOC 29-1131 Veterinarians (via O*NET OnLine) (retrieved 2026-08-15)
- NYS Education Dept., Office of the Professions — licensing pages, as summarised on the New York license requirements page (retrieved 2026-09-16)
Wage figures: BLS OEWS May 2025 state and national estimates, SOC 29-1131, retrieved 2026-09-16. Page last updated 2026-09-22.