Veterinary Assistant Salary in Georgia
Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Georgia — BLS publishes the two as one combined occupation, SOC 31-9096 — earned a median annual wage of $35,850 in the May 2025 estimates, $2,300 or 6% below the national median of $38,150, ranking 40th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median.
What stands out is the compressed distribution: the middle band is $4,680 wide, less than half the national $10,050, and the shortfall is widest at the 75th percentile, 16% below.
What these figures cover
10th percentile
$29,210
25th percentile
$33,560
75th percentile
$38,240
90th percentile
$44,810
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 state estimates — Georgia, SOC 31-9096 (Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers). Retrieved 2026-09-16 from the BLS Public Data API.
How to read these figures
Georgia vs. the national figures
The Georgia median is below the national median by 6%. Among the 51 jurisdictions (states plus DC) where BLS publishes a Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers (SOC 31-9096) median for May 2025, it ranks 40th, and 8th by estimated employment.
Differences are whole percentages, rounded half away from zero, computed from the figures shown.
Below the national figures at every percentile, most of all in the upper middle
Georgia sits below the national figures at every published percentile, but not by the same margin.
The 10th percentile, $29,210, is only 3% below the national $30,120 — the closest point in the distribution — and the 25th is 6% below.
At the median the gap is the same 6%, $35,850 against $38,150.
It then widens sharply: the 75th percentile, $38,240, is 16% below the national $45,710, while the 90th is 9% below at $44,810.
Someone benchmarking an offer against the national median alone would overstate the typical Georgia wage by $2,300.
A middle band less than half the national width
Half of Georgia's workers in this combined occupation earned between $33,560 and $38,240 — a middle band $4,680 wide, less than half the national band of $10,050.
From the 10th to the 90th percentile Georgia spans $15,600, against $19,030 nationally.
Inside the middle band the median sits nearly centered: $2,290 above the 25th percentile and $2,390 below the 75th.
OEWS does not publish why a distribution has this shape, so this page does not assign it a cause.
Holding an hourly posting against these figures
The hourly median in Georgia is $17.24, against $18.34 nationally — $1.10 less, the same 6% gap as the annual median.
The data set carries hourly pay at the median only, so it is the one figure to hold an hourly posting against.
For the rest of the range, ask how many hours a week the role is scheduled before comparing a posted rate with the annual percentiles.
What the employment estimate counts
BLS estimates 4,570 people were employed in this combined occupation in Georgia, 8th among the jurisdictions that publish an employment figure.
That count includes laboratory animal caretakers as well as veterinary assistants, in a split BLS does not publish.
It is a headcount of people in jobs during the survey period — not a count of openings, and not a measure of how quickly positions are filled.
Against the Georgia vet tech median
In the same release, Georgia's veterinary technologists and technicians have a median of $43,060, which is $7,210, or 20%, above the median for this occupation.
Read that as the distance between two BLS occupations in one state, not as a raise any one person should expect: the two rows count different groups of workers.
Same release, same state: veterinary technologists and technicians (SOC 29-2056) in Georgia have a median of $43,060 ($20.70/hr) — $7,210 above the veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers median shown on this page. Vet tech salary in Georgia →
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the median veterinary assistant salary in Georgia?
BLS does not publish veterinary assistants on their own.
The closest figure is SOC 31-9096, Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers, whose Georgia median annual wage was $35,850 in May 2025, or $17.24 an hour.
Half of those counted earned more and half earned less.
The national median for the same occupation is $38,150, so Georgia sits 6% below it.
How much do the top-paid workers in this occupation earn in Georgia?
The Georgia 90th percentile is $44,810, meaning one in ten workers counted in SOC 31-9096 earned more than that.
Nationally the 90th percentile is $49,150, so the Georgia figure is $4,340 lower, 9% below.
Because the occupation combines veterinary assistants with laboratory animal caretakers, the figure cannot say which of the two groups sits at the top.
What does the low end of the pay range look like in Georgia?
The Georgia 10th percentile is $29,210 — the point in the distribution closest to the national figure, just 3% below the national $30,120.
The 25th percentile is $33,560, 6% below the national $35,660.
Percentiles are positions in the distribution, not experience levels, and the figures cover laboratory animal caretakers as well as veterinary assistants.
How does this compare with vet tech pay in Georgia?
In the same BLS release, veterinary technologists and technicians in Georgia have a median of $43,060, against $35,850 for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers — a difference of $7,210, or 20%.
The technician median is 1.2 times this occupation's median.
The two figures describe different occupations, so the gap is context for a career decision, not a promised raise.
How many veterinary assistants work in Georgia?
BLS estimates 4,570 people employed in SOC 31-9096 in Georgia, 8th among the jurisdictions that publish an employment figure.
That number combines veterinary assistants with laboratory animal caretakers, so it overstates clinic assistants alone by an amount BLS does not publish.
It is a headcount of people in jobs, not a count of vacancies.
More Georgia Veterinary Assistant Resources
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 state estimates — Georgia, SOC 31-9096 Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers, and SOC 29-2056 for the technician comparison (BLS Public Data API) (retrieved 2026-09-16)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 national estimates — SOC 31-9096 (via O*NET OnLine) (retrieved 2026-08-15)
Wage figures: BLS OEWS May 2025 state and national estimates, SOC 31-9096, retrieved 2026-09-16. Page last updated 2026-09-24.