Veterinary Assistant Salary in Kansas
Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Kansas — BLS publishes the two as one combined occupation, SOC 31-9096 — earned a median annual wage of $35,680 in the May 2025 estimates, $2,470 or 6% below the national median of $38,150, ranking 43rd of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median.
The shape is distinctive: the shortfall nearly vanishes at the top, where the 90th percentile sits 2% below the national figure, while the middle of the distribution falls 14% and 16% below at the 25th and 75th percentiles.
What these figures cover
10th percentile
$28,720
25th percentile
$30,800
75th percentile
$38,460
90th percentile
$47,930
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 state estimates — Kansas, SOC 31-9096 (Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers). Retrieved 2026-09-16 from the BLS Public Data API.
How to read these figures
Kansas vs. the national figures
The Kansas 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 43rd, and 26th by estimated employment.
Differences are whole percentages, rounded half away from zero, computed from the figures shown.
Below the national figures at every percentile, least of all at the top
Kansas sits below the national figures at every published percentile, but not by the same margin.
The shortfall is shallowest at the ends: the 10th percentile, $28,720, is $1,400 or 5% below the national $30,120, and the 90th percentile, $47,930, is only $1,220 or 2% below the national $49,150 — the closest any Kansas percentile comes to its national counterpart.
The middle falls furthest behind: the 25th percentile is 14% below, and the 75th percentile, $38,460, is 16% below the national $45,710.
Someone benchmarking a Kansas offer against national figures would find the national numbers overstate the middle of this distribution most — by $7,250 at the 75th percentile.
A compressed middle band inside a full-length span
Half of the Kansas workers counted earned between $30,800 and $38,460, a middle band $7,660 wide — noticeably narrower than the national band of $10,050.
Yet the 10th-to-90th span reaches $19,210, against $19,030 nationally, so the full range runs almost exactly as far as the national one.
The compression sits in the middle of the distribution, not at its edges.
Inside the band the median sits high: $4,880 above the 25th percentile and only $2,780 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 Kansas is $17.16, against $18.34 nationally — $1.18 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.
A mid-sized employment count for a combined occupation
BLS estimates 1,570 people were employed in this combined occupation in Kansas, 26th 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 Kansas vet tech median
In the same release, Kansas's veterinary technologists and technicians have a median of $45,810, which is $10,130, or 28%, above the median for this occupation — $22.02 an hour against $17.16, a difference of $4.86.
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 Kansas have a median of $45,810 ($22.02/hr) — $10,130 above the veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers median shown on this page. Vet tech salary in Kansas →
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the median veterinary assistant salary in Kansas?
BLS does not publish veterinary assistants on their own.
The closest figure is SOC 31-9096, Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers, whose Kansas median annual wage was $35,680 in May 2025, or $17.16 an hour.
Half of those counted earned more and half earned less.
The national median for the same occupation is $38,150, so Kansas sits 6% below it.
How much do the top-paid workers in this occupation earn in Kansas?
The Kansas 90th percentile is $47,930, meaning one in ten workers counted in SOC 31-9096 earned more than that.
Nationally the 90th percentile is $49,150, so the Kansas figure is $1,220, or 2%, lower.
Because the occupation combines veterinary assistants with laboratory animal caretakers, the figure cannot say which of the two groups sits at the top.
How does this compare with vet tech pay in Kansas?
In the same BLS release, veterinary technologists and technicians in Kansas have a median of $45,810, against $35,680 for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers — a difference of $10,130.
The technician median is 1.3 times this occupation's median, a 28% gap measured on this occupation's base.
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 Kansas?
BLS estimates 1,570 people employed in SOC 31-9096 in Kansas, 26th among the jurisdictions that publish an employment figure.
That number combines veterinary assistants with laboratory animal caretakers, so it overstates the count of veterinary assistants alone by an amount BLS does not publish.
It is a headcount of people in jobs, not a count of vacancies.
More Kansas Veterinary Assistant Resources
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 state estimates — Kansas, 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.