Veterinarians in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$111,774
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$40,246
26.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$110,552
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$152,020
Kept after tax
$111,774
Worth in national money
$110,552
State rank
5
of 49 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for veterinarians is strong here. Arizona's middle earner gets $152,020, putting the state 5 of 49 — about 16.85% ahead of the national figure.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Arizona. It ranks 9 out of 491 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $152,020, tax leaves $111,774, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $110,552 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $187,410, since top earners drag the number up.
- For veterinarians, Arizona sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $152,020, ranking 5 of 49 and running about 16.85% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Within Arizona, veterinarians ranks 9 of 491 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for veterinarians — median $152,020 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $111,774 retained, $110,552 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $187,410 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Veterinarians
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $81,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $152,020 |
| Top tenth earn over | $262,990 |
| This salary | $152,020 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Arizona | $111,774 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $115,172 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,968 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $147,049 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$11,328 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $152,020 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $81,990 and the ninetieth is $262,990 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Arizona the take-home figure of $111,774, from $152,020, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 9 of 491 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $110,552, the adjusted value of that $152,020 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 9 of 491 in the state.
- The Arizona median of $152,020 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $81,990 to $262,990. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Arizona is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $111,774 from $152,020. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 9 of 491 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $110,552 — the adjusted value of that $152,020 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 9 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $187,410, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
One title, many jobs. The lowest tenth take $81,990, the highest tenth $262,990, and what separates them is experience, employer and what exactly the role does.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $110,552 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Arizona's own levy, $111,774 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 49 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Arizona is $187,410. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($81,990) and the ninetieth ($262,990) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $110,552 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $111,774 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.