The paper numbers favor the US: a median of $130,100 a year for American veterinarians (BLS OEWS May 2025), against a Canadian national median of C$60.00 an hour — about US$42.31 — and a UK range of £32,000 to £65,000, roughly US$42,550 to US$86,440 at the September 30, 2026 Treasury rate.
But each country publishes a different measure, exchange rates move, and taxes, hours and living costs decide what the money buys.
Here is the comparison done honestly, plus the licensing route in both directions.
What do veterinarians earn in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia?
Start with the US, because it anchors every comparison on this page.
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2025 puts the national median for veterinarians (SOC 29-1131) at $130,100 a year, with a mean of $142,680 and a spread from $73,920 at the 10th percentile to $215,700 at the 90th.
Advertised pay runs close to that: on VeterinaryHires (snapshot October 6, 2026), listings stating annual pay had an employer median of $135,000 across 601 employers and 717 listings, with the middle half offered $125,000 to $145,000.
Two more US numbers are worth knowing so the rest of this page doesn't mislead you.
The 2025 AVMA Report on the Economic State of the Veterinary Profession puts average professional income at $149,856 (median $133,000) — income veterinarians themselves reported earning in 2023.
And a newer 2026 edition of that report exists, but it costs $475 for non-members and its tables were not used here.
The full US picture — states and percentiles — is in US veterinarian salary.
Canada publishes hourly, not annual.
The federal Job Bank lists a national median of C$60.00 an hour for veterinarians (NOC 31103), with a low of C$34.15 and a high of C$84.13, from a 2023–2024 reference period updated November 19, 2025.
At the US Treasury's September 30, 2026 reporting rate (US$1 = C$1.418), that median works out to about US$42.31 an hour.
That gives you an hourly-to-hourly line, though not a like-for-like one, because the periods differ: the US median hourly wage was $62.55 in the May 2025 OEWS release, against Canada's 2023–2024 median of C$60.00 — about US$42.31.
Provincially, Job Bank medians included C$62.50 in Alberta, C$60.00 in British Columbia and Ontario, C$64.10 in Quebec and C$50.48 in Manitoba.
Job Bank also reports that 78% of Canadian veterinarians receive at least one non-wage benefit — one reason a wage figure alone undersells a Canadian offer.
The UK's National Careers Service lists average vet pay of £32,000 (starter) to £65,000 (experienced), on typical weeks of 40 to 45 hours.
At the September 30, 2026 Treasury rate (US$1 = £0.752), that is about US$42,550 to US$86,440.
The UK's National Careers Service also lists veterinary nurses — a separate role, not a veterinarian — at £24,000 to £32,000, about US$31,915 to US$42,550.
Australia is the honest gap: the government sources that publish the equivalent figure (Jobs and Skills Australia and Your Career) could not be retrieved when this page was researched, so no verified Australian figure exists in our data and we won't quote one.
The same discipline applies to every other country we can't verify, including the Philippines.
One US caveat travels well: BLS publishes a single code for all veterinarians, so no figure on this page describes a specialty or a setting — and a UK "veterinary surgeon" is simply the UK's term for any vet.
| Country | What the official source publishes | In US dollars | Source, as of |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $130,100 median annual (mean $142,680) | — | BLS OEWS May 2025 |
| Canada | C$60.00 median hourly (low C$34.15, high C$84.13) | about US$42.31/hour | Job Bank, 2023–2024, updated November 19, 2025 |
| United Kingdom | £32,000 starter to £65,000 experienced | about US$42,550 to US$86,440 | National Careers Service |
| Australia | Government figure not retrievable — none published here | — | — |
Cost of living, tax and hours: why the raw numbers mislead
Four things sit between a gross figure and the money that actually lands in your account, and none of them show up in a wage table.
First, exchange rates.
Every dollar figure for Canada and the UK above is converted at the US Treasury's September 30, 2026 reporting rates (US$1 = C$1.418, £0.752, A$1.435).
Those rates move constantly, so re-check them the week you actually compare an offer — a stronger or weaker dollar reshuffles the whole table.
Second, the measures differ.
The US number is an annual median across employed veterinarians; Canada's is a median hourly wage; the UK's is a starter-to-experienced range from a careers-service profile.
None is designed to be set against another exactly — treat the comparison as directional, not to the dollar.
Third, hours and benefits differ.
The UK profile is built on typical weeks of 40 to 45 hours, so its annual range and Canada's hourly median build in different working patterns.
The wage figures above don't count benefits: Canada's Job Bank counts 78% of veterinarians receiving at least one non-wage benefit, and what healthcare costs you personally depends on each country's system.
Fourth, tax and living costs are national and local.
Income tax, payroll deductions, housing and healthcare all differ by country and by city within it, so the same gross figure nets out very differently in Toronto, London and rural Texas.
This page compares gross pay only — run the destination's taxes and cost of living on top of it, and treat the net result, not the headline number, as your decision figure.
Moving to the US to practice: the licensing route
If you trained outside the US, the pay gap only matters once you can legally work, and that runs through a license from the specific state you want to practice in — plus, if your school isn't accredited by the AVMA Council on Education (COE), certification of your veterinary degree first.
There is no national US veterinary license — the AAVSB puts it plainly: veterinarians must have a license in each state or province where they practice.
Check your school before anything else.
The COE accredits some colleges outside the US — five in Canada plus colleges in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Korea and the West Indies — and the COE accreditation list shows which.
For graduates of non-accredited programs, the certification gate has two routes, ECFVG and PAVE — which one applies to you, and what each step involves, is exactly what ECFVG and PAVE covers step by step.
Once you're credentialed, where you license is the next decision.
Paperwork timing is knowable in advance.
When a board needs your existing license verified, AAVSB's VAULT license-transfer service verifies and processes applications in 15 to 35 business days — build that into your timeline rather than discovering it in month three.
The other gate is the employer.
Whether a practice will sponsor a foreign-trained veterinarian is a per-practice decision, so if you're the candidate, ask early; if you're the employer, our guide to visa sponsorship (employers) covers what the process involves from your side of the desk.
Confirm with the program and the board
US veterinarians working abroad: what transfers and what doesn't
The route runs in the other direction too, and the same rule applies in reverse.
Your US license is issued by one state board and stops at that state's line — the AAVSB's framing, a license in each state or province where you practice, is the whole point.
Abroad, expect the same per-jurisdiction logic in each destination's own terms: you would register with that country's veterinary regulator as a foreign-trained applicant.
Before assuming anything carries over, ask the destination regulator what a US-trained applicant needs.
On pay, read the table above in reverse.
Against a US median hourly wage of $62.55 (May 2025), Canada's 2023–2024 median of C$60.00 (about US$42.31) is lower, and even the UK's experienced figure — about US$86,440 — sits below the US median annual figure.
Gross pay isn't the whole decision, though: weigh what the destination's taxes, healthcare, housing costs and benefits package do to the net number, and how its registration timeline fits your plans.
A practical order of operations: pick the city, not just the country, because living costs are local.
Pull the pay figure from that country's official source — Canada's Job Bank and the UK's National Careers Service publish theirs openly.
Confirm registration requirements with the destination regulator in writing.
Only then compare offers net of tax and living costs.