Do you ever wonder what a veterinarian salary is? What they make in one hour or as their annual income? The following page will give you a concise overview of information regarding a veterinarian salary, including: job prospects, work environment, factors affecting veterinarian salary, typical work schedule, hourly veterinarian salary, annual veterinarian salary, highest paying cities, highest paying states, and highest paying work environment.
What is a Veterinarian?
Veterinarians are health care professionals who specialize in veterinary medicine. They diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases and injuries in animals. For more on job description, please visit our veterinarian job description page.
Job Prospects
In 2010, there were 61,400 jobs in this occupation and it will expand 36% by 2020.
Work Environment
There are many different types of veterinarians and they all work in different environments. Majority of veterinarians work in veterinary services industry. These veterinarians work in private clinics where they treat mostly companion animals. Some veterinarians may work with farm animals and must travel to farms and ranches. They spend most of their time working outdoors. Others may work in research laboratories or government agencies where they spend bulk of their time indoors.
What Affects Veterinarian Salary
There are three main factors that affect the veterinarian salary.
Experience is the most important factor. Veterinarians with over 20 years of experience may see an annual income of over $100,000 while new graduates will often take home less than $60,000.
Where a veterinarian work can also affect their salary. Vets that work for pharmaceutical companies make the highest salary while those who work for universities and colleges make the least. However, being self-employed may perhaps be the most profitable. Based on reputation and loyalty, privately owned clinics can easily make over $140,000 per year.
The last factor is education. Some veterinarian may further their degree by becoming a veterinarian specialist which usually requires an extra 2 years in clinical practice and another 3 years in residency. These veterinarians are expert in the field they specialize, such as oncology or dentistry; consequently, their income resides in the top 10% of all veterinarian salary.
Typical Work Schedule
Veterinarians are expected to work any time of the week including evenings and weekends. They work long hours; in fact, about 25% of veterinarians work more than 50 hours a week. This is typically seen among veterinarians who work in private clinics dealing with companion animals. Similar to physicians, veterinarians may be on call and will have to respond to emergency situations on their day off.
Mean Annual Veterinarian Salary
The mean annual salary of a veterinarian is $91,250. The mean salary is calculated by adding all the wages within the occupation and dividing that value by the total number of employees. Lowest 10% of this occupation makes less than $50,480 and the top 10% makes over $141,680.
Mean Hourly Veterinarian Salary
- Mean Hourly Salary: $43.87
- Bottom 10%: $24.27
- Top 10%: $68.11
Highest Paying Work Environment
- Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing
Highest Paying Cities
- New Haven, CT: $158,240
- Lakeland, FL: $156,950
- Newark, NJ: $149,620
- Myrtle Beach, SC: $147,230
- Port St. Lucie, FL: $146,200
Highest Paying States
- Connecticut: $125,810
- New Jersey: $121,480
- Hawaii: $111,310
- District of Columbia: $110,800
- Pennsylvania: $109,000
veterinarian salary state by state
State with Highest Employment Level
- California
- Texas
- Florida
- New York
- Ohio
Disclaimer
All the information regarding veterinarian salary was obtained from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics and other credible resources.
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