Veterinary Technician Salary in 2026: What Veterinary Technicians Earn
25th percentile
$38,910
Median (50th)
$47,380
75th percentile
$57,650
90th percentile
$63,180
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 national release — SOC 29-2056, Veterinary Technologists and Technicians.
Veterinary Technician Compensation Structure
Compensation for veterinary techniciansvaries significantly by employment type. Here's how the most common structures break down:
Bottom 10%
Roughly $17.17/hr. Typically new graduates and lower-cost-of-living markets.
$35,710 or less
Middle 50%
The band most postings fall in — about $18.71 to $27.72 per hour.
$38,910–$57,650
Median
Half of veterinary technologists and technicians earn more than this, half less. About $22.78/hr.
$47,380
Top 10%
Around $30.38/hr and up. Concentrated in specialty and emergency settings and high-wage metros.
$63,180 or more
What Affects Veterinary Technician Salary?
Veterinary technician pay is usually quoted hourly rather than annually, which is worth knowing when you compare a posting against the figures above — most listings advertise a rate, not a salary.
Four things move the number in practice. Credential status is the first: whether your state requires credentialing at all, and whether an employer distinguishes credentialed from uncredentialed staff in what they pay, varies enormously — see working as a vet tech without a credential for why that variation exists, and the credentialed vs non-credentialed pay gap for the NAVTA-surveyed dollar figure.
Setting is the second. Emergency and specialty referral hospitals sit higher in this distribution than general practice, and the top decile is concentrated there and in high-wage metros.
Shift structure is the third — overnight, weekend and on-call differentials are a real part of emergency compensation and are not always visible in an advertised base rate.
Specialty certification is the fourth. A VTS is the clearest scope-and-pay step-up available to a technician, though how much it moves pay is employer-dependent and not something BLS measures.
The figures on this page are national. Wages vary substantially by state and metro, and per-state data is not published here yet — check the BLS OEWS state tables directly for your own market in the meantime.