The short answer
Credentialed veterinary technicians in the US usually complete a two-year associate's or four-year bachelor's program and pass a credentialing exam. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put their median pay at $47,380 a year in May 2025. Surveys of technicians report that:
- many feel their training goes partly unused;
- their duties often overlap with those of uncredentialed staff;
- low pay and burnout are the main forces pushing them away from the field.
The evidence comes mostly from self-selected online surveys. The figures therefore describe the people who answered more reliably than they describe the whole workforce.
Key takeaways
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports these figures for veterinary technologists and technicians [1]:
- a May 2025 median annual wage of $47,380 ($22.78 an hour);
- 131,400 jobs in 2025;
- 9% projected growth from 2025 to 2035.
- NAVTA's 2024 member survey had 1,404 respondents. The average reported gross income was $53,759, and 39% named low pay as their single biggest challenge [2][3].
- Only 36% of NAVTA's 2024 respondents said their skills were used to their fullest potential [3].
- In the same survey, 48% saw little difference between their duties and those of uncredentialed support staff [3].
- A survey published in 2025 covered 2,176 assistants, technicians, and specialists. Of these, 64% said their interest in staying in the field long term had declined, most often citing inadequate pay [4].
- A study published in 2020 surveyed 1,642 credentialed technicians. It found 58.3% scored above a burnout threshold on the emotional exhaustion scale [5].
- NAVTA's 2024 survey found 93% of respondents supported protecting the title "veterinary technician" and 90% supported a national credential [2].
Education and credentialing
According to the BLS, technologists usually hold a four-year bachelor's degree in veterinary technology, and technicians usually hold a two-year associate's degree. The BLS says both typically "must take a credentialing exam and become registered, licensed, or certified," depending on state rules [1]. The BLS notes that each state regulates the occupation differently [1].
Kogan, Carter, and Foltz published a study in 2025 in the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. It cites the AVMA's definition of a veterinary technician as someone who has:
- finished a 2- or 4-year degree;
- passed a national exam;
- met state requirements for a certificate, registration, or license [4].
The same authors note that state credentialing pathways outside degree completion still exist. This makes published data less precise about who is and is not credentialed [4]. Among their credentialed respondents, the most common credentials were certified (43%), registered (37%), and licensed (24%) [4].
Supply is tight at the top of the pipeline. The 2025 study reports that about 7,000 candidates a year have sat the Veterinary Technician National Examination over the past six years. The authors called this "far short of the number needed" [4]. The study also reports an estimated 1,511 veterinary technician specialists in 2024 [4].
That study also asked technicians who were not credentialed (n = 222) why. The most common reasons were [4]:
- cost (65%);
- doubt that credentialing would substantially raise pay (59%);
- the time required (45%).
Pay
The two main pay sources measure different populations and should not be merged. The BLS figure covers all veterinary technologists and technicians in its wage survey. The NAVTA figure comes from association members who chose to respond.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|
| Median annual wage, May 2025 | $47,380 | BLS [1] |
| Lowest 10 percent, May 2025 | less than $35,710 | BLS [1] |
| Highest 10 percent, May 2025 | more than $63,180 | BLS [1] |
| Median, educational services, May 2025 | $52,200 | BLS [1] |
| Median, veterinary services, May 2025 | $47,170 | BLS [1] |
| Average gross income, 2024 | $53,759 | NAVTA survey [2][3] |
| Average hourly rate, 2024 | $32.89 | NAVTA survey [2][3] |
The BLS says technicians in research positions often earn more than those in other fields [1].
NAVTA's 2024 analysis in Today's Veterinary Nurse reported that the average hourly rate rose from $26.50 in 2022 [3]. It also reported that 18% of respondents held two jobs and 5% held three or more, mostly to supplement income [3].
On the credential premium, the 2025 Kogan study cites NAVTA's 2022 survey. Credentialed technicians averaged $26.80 an hour against $18.60 for assistants, a gap of $8.20 [4]. The authors wrote that "many VT/Ns do not perceive a noticeable difference" [4]. They also noted that more than one third of technicians carry student loan debt averaging $29,700 [4]. In their own survey, 27% of respondents were satisfied with pay. Only staffing levels ranked lower [4].
How technician skills are used in practice
Under-use of trained skills is one of the most consistent findings across these sources.
- NAVTA 2024: 36% of respondents felt fully used, 44% sometimes, and 19% not [3].
- Kogan 2025, skills in use: 26% of 2,010 respondents said half or less of their skills and knowledge were in use, and 14% said more than 90% [4].
- Kogan 2025, time on lower-skill tasks: 28% spent over half their time on tasks that staff with less training could do [4].
The 2025 study asked respondents who felt under-used for their reasons. The most common were [4]:
- workplace culture limiting what technicians may do (37%);
- veterinarians' lack of trust (34%);
- veterinarians being unaware of the technician's training level (32%).
The study also found 61% of respondents said there were skills they could legally perform but lacked training for [4]. The most common obstacles were that no training time was set aside (67%) or no mentor was available (47%) [4].
Role differentiation is uneven. In the 2025 study, 27% said tasks at their workplace did not differ by credential at all, and 41% said only sometimes [4]. Respondents whose workplaces did differentiate roles most often reported doing so by name badge (69%) [4]. Only 22% said their employer educated clients about technician credentials [4].
The practice economics appear in two sources:
- The 2025 Kogan paper cites an estimate that one additional credentialed technician raises practice revenue by about 20.5% [4].
- The same paper notes a current technician-to-veterinarian ratio near 2:1 in companion animal practice, against a suggested 10:1 [4].
- Reinhard and colleagues published a paper in Frontiers in 2025. It cites a Canadian study in which each added credentialed technician per veterinarian raised annual revenue per veterinarian by over $75,000 [6].
The Kogan authors also note that letting technicians work at their skill level is among the AVMA's recommendations for addressing the veterinarian shortage [4].
Burnout and retention
The 2020 Kogan study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science surveyed 1,642 credentialed technicians. They were recruited through social media between November 2018 and February 2019 [5]. Using an emotional exhaustion cutoff of 3.0, 58.3% exceeded the burnout threshold [5].
The authors reported two main predictors [5]:
- Greater control over time at work and shift length was the most significant predictor of lower exhaustion.
- Feeling that one adds value to the practice was the strongest predictor of lower cynicism.
They cautioned that the response rate was about 1.5% of employed technicians and that correlation does not show causation [5].
The 2025 Kogan study used the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index. It found 61.7% of 1,784 respondents above the burnout cutoff, with no difference by role [4]. It found 20.6% above the fulfillment cutoff [4].
Respondents reporting declining interest in the field rated these factors as significant negative influences [4]:
- inadequate pay (66%);
- burnout or compassion fatigue;
- short staffing (52%);
- poor leadership (50%).
The authors concluded that systemic issues rather than personal ones may predict burnout and intent to stay [4].
NAVTA's 2024 survey reported these findings [2][3]:
- 88% of respondents had experienced compassion fatigue;
- the share "extremely satisfied" with their job fell from 25% in 2022 to 8%;
- 57% would likely choose the career again.
On tenure, the Reinhard paper states that technicians have historically stayed in their careers for five to seven years [6]. Its focus groups described long shifts, physical strain, and few advancement routes [6]. One participant said there was no clear way to keep credentialed pay after health issues with her hands limited care tasks [6].
Title protection and professional identity
Title protection means restricting use of "veterinary technician" to people who meet set education and credential requirements. The Reinhard paper cites NAVTA research from 2022 showing only eleven states defined the title and only five carried criminal penalties for misrepresentation [6].
In NAVTA's 2024 survey [3]:
- 93% supported title protection;
- 94% supported a standard national scope of practice;
- 58% preferred the title "veterinary nurse".
The 2025 Kogan authors described "title creep," in which assistants are labeled as technicians and trained to do credentialed work [4]. They suggested it may contribute to disengagement and lower wages across the industry [4].
Limits of the evidence
- NAVTA: the figures come from 1,404 responses from NAVTA members [3].
- Kogan 2025: the authors flagged a disproportionate share of emergency and critical care respondents and possible response bias [4].
- Reinhard: the study is qualitative, with 17 participants in four focus groups, all white. Its authors note possible conformity bias [6].
- Regional pay: the cited sources do not address regional pay differences in detail. The BLS directs readers to state and area wage data [1].
