Veterinary Technician Salary in Virginia

At the very floor of the distribution, Virginia and the nation are essentially level: the 10th percentile is $35,590 against $35,710 nationally, a difference that rounds to 0%.

Move up to the 25th percentile and the gap opens fast — $46,030 against $38,910, a $7,120 difference, 18% higher.

The median itself, $52,090 against $47,380, is 10% higher, and Virginia's median ranks 7th among the 51 jurisdictions that publish one.

The 75th percentile narrows the percentage gap again, to 8% ($62,040 against $57,650, a $4,390 difference), before the 90th percentile pulls furthest ahead of all: $75,770 against $63,180, a $12,590 difference, 20% higher.

A technician weighing an offer against national benchmarks should treat the floor of the range as roughly interchangeable with the nation's, and the top of the range as where Virginia diverges most.

Half of Virginia's technicians counted earned between $46,030 and $62,040 — a band $16,010 wide.

Nationally the same middle half spans $38,910 to $57,650, a wider $18,740 band.

The full range tells a different story: from the 10th percentile ($35,590) to the 90th ($75,770), Virginia's technicians span $40,180, well beyond the national span of $27,470 from $35,710 to $63,180.

Inside Virginia's own middle half, the median sits closer to the floor than the ceiling — $6,060 above the 25th percentile and $9,950 below the 75th.

None of this explains why the shape looks this way; OEWS publishes wage counts, not the reasons behind them.

The data set behind this page carries Virginia's hourly wage only at the median: $25.04, against $22.78 nationally, a 10% gap that matches the gap at the annual median.

That makes the hourly median the figure to hold a posted hourly rate against.

For the rest of the range, the annual percentiles above are the only guide this page has, so before comparing an hourly posting with them, ask the employer how many hours a week the role is scheduled for.

BLS estimates that 2,790 veterinary technologists and technicians were employed in Virginia, 13th among the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median for this occupation.

That figure is a headcount of people already working in the role during the survey period, not a count of open positions.

It sits alongside the pay figures only as a measure of the occupation's size in the state, and this page draws no further conclusion from it.

Virginia licenses veterinary technicians through the Virginia Board of Veterinary Medicine, part of the state's Department of Health Professions.

The standard route is a degree from an AVMA- or CVMA-accredited program plus the VTNE, with scores sent through AAVSB; technicians holding a current credential from another US jurisdiction's regulator can qualify by endorsement instead, if they document clinical practice in at least two of the past four years and at least 16 hours of continuing education in the preceding four.

This page's wage data does not separate credentialed technicians from uncredentialed ones, so it cannot show a pay difference tied to holding the license.

The full requirements page linked below covers the endorsement route, the exam, and the CE rules the sources state.