Veterinary Technician Salary in California

California's median annual wage of $60,630 sits $13,250, or 28%, above the national median of $47,380.

That lead is even larger lower in the distribution: the California 10th percentile, $48,240, is 35% above the national 10th percentile of $35,710, and the 25th percentile, $51,570, is 33% above the national $38,910.

The lead shrinks to its smallest at the 75th percentile, where California's $64,100 is only 11% above the national $57,650, then widens again at the very top: the 90th percentile, $75,860, is 20% above the national $63,180.

A technician who scales national percentile figures by the 28% median gap would understate California's own floor and overstate its 75th percentile, since the state's advantage over the national figures is uneven rather than a flat percentage across the range.

Half of the technicians counted in California earned between $51,570 and $64,100 — a band $12,530 wide.

Nationally the same band runs from $38,910 to $57,650, or $18,740 wide, so the California band is narrower even though it sits higher.

The full span from the 10th percentile to the 90th, $27,620, is almost identical to the national span of $27,470.

Inside that span the median sits much closer to the 75th percentile, $3,470 away, than to the 25th, $9,060 away — the opposite of the national shape, where the median sits closer to the 25th percentile than the 75th.

OEWS does not explain why a distribution takes this shape, so this page does not assign it a cause.

The dataset behind this page carries California's hourly wage only at the median: $29.15, against $22.78 nationally, a 28% gap that matches the gap in the annual median exactly.

That makes the hourly median the only hourly figure to hold a posted rate against here — the percentile spread above is annual only.

OEWS computes its annual wage estimates from the hourly rate, not the other way around, so before comparing a posted hourly rate with the annual percentiles, ask the employer how many hours a week the role is scheduled for.

BLS counted 11,310 veterinary technologists and technicians employed in California, 3rd among the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median.

That is a headcount of people already in jobs during the survey period, not a count of open positions, so it says something about the size of the occupation in California rather than how easy or hard a position is to fill.

It also does not explain why the California wage distribution sits where it does relative to the national one — that is a separate question this page's other sections address, not one the employment figure by itself answers.

California licenses this credential as the Registered Veterinary Technician, or RVT, issued by the California Veterinary Medical Board.

Four routes lead to eligibility: a degree from an AVMA-accredited program, an Alternate Route certificate under California Code of Regulations section 2068.5, the PAVE assessment, or an existing out-of-state RVT registration.

Every applicant sits the VTNE through the AAVSB before applying to the Board, and the combined application and initial license fee comes to $450.

Whether the credential is mandatory to work as a technician, rather than just to use the RVT title, was not settled in the sources the Board's page provided, and this page cannot fill that gap.

The full requirements page on this site lays out every pathway and fee in detail.