What Should You Pay an Animal Care Technician? An Employer Pay Guide by Market
There is no wage series named animal care technician, so price the offer from the animal caretaker tables: in BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 39-2021), animal caretakers median $17.00 an hour across all industries and $15.46 in veterinary services, while social advocacy organizations — the industry that includes animal welfare nonprofits — median $16.70.
Anchor between your industry's 25th and 75th percentiles, adjust for your state and metro, and put the number in the posting.
At a glance
BLS OEWS May 2025 · SOC 39-2021 animal caretakers
National median, all industries
$17.00 / hr
P25–P75, all industries
Middle 50%, nationally
$14.34 – $19.26 / hr
NAICS 541940 · P25 $13.65 – P75 $17.75 · 33,720 jobs
Veterinary services median
$15.46 / hr
NAICS 813300 — includes animal welfare nonprofits · 10,170 jobs
Social advocacy orgs median
$16.70 / hr
The national offer range, and the series behind it
BLS publishes no wage series named "animal care technician" — it is an employer title, not a BLS occupation.
The shelter and kennel-side hires this guide prices fall under SOC 39-2021, animal caretakers — the code that also covers kennel staff, shelter attendants and groomers.
Research-facility ACTs are counted in a different series, SOC 31-9096 together with veterinary assistants; this page prices the shelter and clinic side.
The caretaker percentiles are published as hourly wages.
Across all industries, the May 2025 release puts animal caretakers at an hourly 10th percentile of $13.10, 25th percentile $14.34, median $17.00, 75th percentile $19.26 and 90th percentile $24.07.
Read as offers: P25 is a new-hire start, the median is a competent experienced caregiver, P75 is a lead.
The row you actually compete in is veterinary services (NAICS 541940): hourly 10th percentile $11.20, 25th $13.65, median $15.46, 75th $17.75 and 90th $21.63, across 33,720 jobs.
The vet-services median is the lower of the two — the all-industry figure pools every industry that employs animal caretakers, not just clinics.
One floor before anything else: a veterinary-services 10th percentile of $11.20 sits below some state minimum wages, which is what a percentile blended across all states produces.
Never advertise below your state or local minimum wage.
Before you price the number, price the role — the how to hire an animal care technician guide covers what the role should own in your hospital or shelter, which decides which percentile row you are actually hiring from.
How your state and metro move the number
National percentiles are the ceiling of useful precision, not an offer.
A statewide median blends your metro with rural counties, and minimum wages differ by state and city — the $11.20 veterinary-services 10th percentile makes the point.
The animal care technician pay guide on the career side carries this occupation's state figures — the high and low endpoints of the May 2025 release — so anchor on your state's end of that band.
Then correct for your metro the only way that works: read the last ten postings for this work near you.
When you read posted medians on any board — including ours — read them as advertised rates, not earnings: they exclude bonuses and production pay unless the employer folds them into the posted range, and job-board listings are not a random sample of all veterinary jobs.
VeterinaryHires' headline employer median takes each employer's own median first, so a group posting hundreds of openings counts once.
For the wider context on the role itself — duties, settings, how people get in — the animal care technician career guide covers it from the candidate's side.
What moves the number for this role
Setting moves it first.
In the same release, animal caretakers in social advocacy organizations — the industry group that includes animal welfare nonprofits — earned an hourly 10th percentile of $11.38, a median of $16.70 and a 90th percentile of $22.58, with 10,170 employed.
That median is above the $15.46 veterinary-services figure, so the assumption that the nonprofit side automatically pays less than veterinary services does not hold in these tables.
Two limits on that comparison.
Municipal and county animal-control shelters are government employers, so they are not inside the advocacy-organization figure.
And the advocacy industry covers organizing groups broadly, not only animal welfare — treat it as the advocacy-organization row, not a shelter-only row.
Kennel attendants share the occupation code — our kennel attendant pay guide reads the same tables from the clinic-and-boarding side.
Duties move the number too.
The percentiles do not separate a kennel-care hire from one you also train for euthanasia duty, overnight monitoring or inventory ownership — those assignments are what P75 is for.
No primary source publishes typical euthanasia-duty, cagewash or weekend premiums, so there is no citable number to copy: size any premium from postings in your own metro, and write down when it applies.
Who may perform euthanasia at all, and under what supervision, is a state-by-state scope question — check it before you write the duty into the posting.
Turn the movers into structure: building pay bands that separate entry, competent and lead — with a setting split if you run both a hospital and a shelter side — keeps premium decisions from being made ad hoc every time someone gives notice.
Hourly or salary — and the overtime that comes with it
Quote the role hourly.
The federal percentiles this page quotes are hourly, and hourly pay keeps the math simple when schedules vary week to week.
Budget for overtime from day one.
Under the FLSA, non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, and federal law sets no daily overtime rule — under the federal rule, a six-day, 42-hour week costs two overtime hours.
A salary does not settle it.
Paying a salary does not by itself make an employee exempt, and the FLSA allows paying a non-exempt employee a salary as long as overtime is also paid.
Whether a salaried version of this role could fit an exemption is a classification question — confirm it with employment counsel before you post a salaried figure.
If you add shift pay, it belongs in the overtime math: shift differentials — night premiums are the rule's own example — must be included in the regular rate, whether paid as a percentage of base or as cents per hour.
Benefits that substitute for base pay
The tables above price wages only, so treat this section as a design exercise: decide what you can offer that costs less per month than the base-pay gap you are trying to close.
Start with schedule quality.
A published rotation, an every-other-weekend commitment and holiday assignments decided a month out are compensation you can grant for free — and they belong in the posting.
Then training paid in hours rather than wages: protected time to cross-train on reception or assistant tasks, a defined path toward those roles, and coverage of any coursework the next rung needs.
A visible ladder is also what makes your P75 defensible when the two-year caregiver asks what growth looks like.
Be honest about the substitution, though.
A below-median base with a strong package can work while you explain it; an unexplained below-median base reads exactly as what it is.
Say the trade in the posting.
Writing the pay line in the posting
State a number.
On VeterinaryHires, 78.5% of veterinary listings stated a pay rate or range on October 6, 2026 — 9,513 of 12,114 active listings — and the board counts postings that say only "competitive" or "DOE" as not stating pay.
The split tracks state law: in states with a pay-range posting law, 92.6% of veterinary listings stated pay, versus 68.2% everywhere else.
Fourteen states plus DC required a pay range in job postings as of October 6, 2026 — Colorado, California, Washington, New York, Hawaii, District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maine and Connecticut — with employer-size thresholds that vary by state: Colorado covers employers with 1+ employee in Colorado, California 15+ employees, New York 4+.
To see whether your state and headcount are covered, read our posting a pay range guide before you draft the ad.
Two state specifics worth knowing.
New York State's Labor Law 194-b requires businesses with four or more employees to list compensation ranges for advertised jobs, promotions and transfers, and to state whether a job is commission-based.
California requires a good-faith estimate of the expected piece-rate or commission range when a position's pay is based on either.
Kennel attendant listings are the least-transparent support role in our role table: 70.8% stated pay on October 6, 2026 — lower than every role listed except emergency and relief veterinarians.
A specific number is the cheapest differentiator you have.
Ways to structure the pay
Hourly base anchored to your industry row
Best for: every animal care hire — the foundation the other structures sit on
Start a new hire between your industry's P25 and median — $13.65 to $15.46 in veterinary services — put a competent experienced caregiver at or above the $15.46 median, and reserve P75 ($17.75) for lead duties like training new hires or owning inventory.
Trade-off: A bare market-rate base makes you identical to every other shelter and clinic reading the same table — it wins the shortlist, not the signature.
When to use: always — every structure below is this one plus something on top
FLSA: non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, and federal law sets no daily overtime rule.
Confirm classification for your specific roles with employment counsel.
Setting-split bands: clinic side and nonprofit side
Best for: organizations that staff both a hospital and a shelter operation, or compete with a nonprofit or municipal shelter for the same caregivers
Keep two rows: veterinary-services percentiles ($15.46 median) for the hospital-kennel side, and the advocacy-organization figures ($16.70 median) for the nonprofit side — social advocacy organizations include animal welfare groups, and that is the row the federal tables offer for that market.
Trade-off: One blended band across both settings either overpays one side or loses the other.
Municipal animal-control shelters are government employers and sit outside the advocacy-organization figures, so benchmark against them separately.
When to use: when your caregivers could walk across the street to an animal welfare nonprofit — the advocacy-organization row may pay more, not less
Experience rungs tied to documented duties
Best for: keeping the second- and third-year caregiver you already trained
Publish what moves someone from P25 to median to P75: independent closed-kennel competence at median; training new hires, key-holder duties or inventory ownership at P75. Review rungs on a schedule, not on resignation.
Trade-off: Rungs without documented duty changes behind them are job titles — make the documented duty change, not the anniversary, the trigger for the raise.
When to use: when mid-tenure staff keep leaving over small hourly increases down the street
Premiums for weekend, overnight and euthanasia duty
Best for: schedules where coverage — not just presence — is what you are buying
Add flat premiums — cents per hour or per shift — for weekend rotations, overnight monitoring and euthanasia duty.
No primary source publishes typical figures for these premiums, so size them from postings in your own metro, apply them consistently, and write down when each applies.
Trade-off: Premiums applied inconsistently breed resentment faster than no premium at all — one caregiver discovering a lower rate for the same Sunday undoes the whole scheme.
When to use: when the rota keeps breaking on weekends or nobody is trained for euthanasia duty
Shift differentials — night premiums are the rule's own example — must be included in the regular rate when you calculate overtime, whether paid as a percentage of base or as cents per hour.
Also check the combined rate clears your state and local minimum wage.
Questions employers ask
Is $15.00 an hour competitive for an animal care technician?
It sits below both medians: $17.00 across all industries and $15.46 in veterinary services (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 39-2021).
On VeterinaryHires, the posted employer median for kennel attendant listings — the closest first-party anchor for this hire, because the listings behind it price the ward-and-kennel work — was $15.00 an hour across 65 employers on October 6, 2026, so $15.00 posts right at that posted median.
A below-median offer can work when the posting explains what else is in the package; an unexplained one reads as low.
Do I have to include a pay range in the posting?
That depends on your state.
Fourteen states plus DC required a pay range in job postings as of October 6, 2026 — Colorado, California, Washington, New York, Hawaii, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maine, Connecticut and District of Columbia — each with its own employer-size threshold, such as 1+ employee in Colorado, 15+ in California and 4+ in New York.
Check the state list against your headcount before you draft the ad.
How much more should euthanasia duty or weekend shifts pay?
There is no published figure to copy: no primary source publishes typical euthanasia-duty, cagewash or weekend premiums, so any number in another posting is that employer's local decision.
Size the premium from postings in your own metro, apply it consistently, and put it in writing.
One rule that does apply: a shift differential — cents per hour or a percentage — must be included in the regular rate when you calculate overtime.
Can I pay an animal care technician a salary instead of hourly?
A salary is allowed, but it does not settle overtime.
Paying a salary does not by itself make an employee exempt, and the FLSA lets you pay a non-exempt employee a salary as long as overtime past 40 hours in a workweek is also paid at 1.5 times the regular rate.
Whether a salaried version of this role fits an exemption is a classification question — confirm it with employment counsel before you post a salaried figure.
More hiring resources
More for hiring an animal care technician
You built the band. Post the number.
Most veterinary listings on VeterinaryHires state pay — and listings that only say "competitive" or "DOE" count as not stating it.
Post your animal care technician opening with the range you just set, or browse how similar roles are being posted first.