Veterinarian Salary in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania's median annual wage for veterinarians is $133,520, $3,420 — or 3% — above the national median of $130,100.

The hourly median tells a similar story: $64.19 against $62.55, also a 3% gap.

The floor and middle of the range run only modestly ahead of the nation — the Pennsylvania 10th percentile is 8% above the national 10th percentile and the 25th is 6% above — while the 75th percentile is essentially even with the national figure, at $166,230 against $166,120.

The real separation shows up at the top: the Pennsylvania 90th percentile is $268,870, 25% above the national 90th percentile of $215,700, a $53,170 gap.

A veterinarian benchmarking an offer against the national 90th percentile would be looking at a figure well below what the Pennsylvania distribution reaches at that same position.

The middle half of Pennsylvania veterinarians — the 25th to 75th percentile — earned between $107,810 and $166,230, a band $58,420 wide.

The same band nationally is $64,660 wide, so the Pennsylvania middle is narrower than the national one.

The full range tells the opposite story: from the 10th percentile ($79,780) to the 90th ($268,870), Pennsylvania spans $189,090, well past the national span of $141,780.

A narrower middle paired with a much wider top-to-bottom span means the distribution is compressed through its middle and stretched at its upper edge, reaching well past the national one there.

OEWS publishes the shape of the distribution, not the reasons behind it, so this page does not attribute the wide top to any particular kind of practice.

BLS estimates 3,490 veterinarians employed in Pennsylvania, 4th among the 49 jurisdictions that publish a median, even though the state's median wage ranks only 9th among the same group.

The percentiles on this page summarise a workforce nearer the larger end of the distribution rather than a handful of practices.

The figure is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period, not a count of open positions, and it says nothing about how quickly any employer fills a role — read it as the size of the profession in the state and nothing more.

Pennsylvania licenses veterinarians through the PA State Board of Veterinary Medicine.

The NAVLE is the only examination for original licensure — the practice act and the Board's regulations name no separate state-law exam, and the regulations do not restate a numeric passing score.

A veterinarian licensed elsewhere can apply by reciprocity after 5 years of continuous active clinical practice, backed by a detailed practice verification and good-standing letters from every board where they have held a license; with less than that, the general Act 41 of 2019 endorsement route is considered case by case.

Licenses renew every 24 months against 30 clock hours of continuing education, expiring November 30 of even-numbered years.

Those steps hold no matter where a job sits in the wage distribution; the full Pennsylvania license requirements page covers each one with its citation.