Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers in Connecticut
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$35,994
after federal, FICA and Connecticut tax
Tax takes
$8,256
18.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$34,713
Connecticut costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Connecticut — 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
$44,250
Kept after tax
$35,994
Worth in national money
$34,713
State rank
11
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for this job is strong here. Connecticut's middle earner gets $44,250, putting the state 11 of 51 — about 15.99% ahead of the national figure.
- Against 482 occupations Connecticut publishes, this job lands at 404. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Connecticut is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $44,250 the take-home is $35,994; in national-average money that behaves like $34,713. The average comes to $46,150, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers, Connecticut sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $44,250, ranking 11 of 51 and running about 15.99% 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 Connecticut, this work ranks 404 of 482 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- Take-home for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Connecticut, on $44,250, is $35,994; deflated by the state's price level, $34,713. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $46,150 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $35,920 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $44,250 |
| Top tenth earn over | $59,950 |
| This salary | $44,250 |
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 Connecticut | $35,994 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,735 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$4,119 |
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 | $42,083 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,981 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Connecticut earn less than $44,250. The published range is $35,920 up to $59,950, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $35,994 take-home in Connecticut comes from $44,250. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 404 of 482.
- Two cautions on $34,713, the adjusted value of that $44,250 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Connecticut. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 404 of 482 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Connecticut the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $35,920 to $59,950. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $35,994, from $44,250, assumes a single Connecticut filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 404 of 482 locally, and the state ranks 11 of 51 for it.
- This $34,713 adjusted figure, worked from $44,250, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 404 of 482 in the state. The occupation ranks 404 of 482 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $46,150 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $35,920 at the tenth percentile, $59,950 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Connecticut run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $34,713 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Connecticut adds its own income tax on top — which is why $35,994 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Connecticut is $46,150. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($35,920 to $59,950) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Connecticut rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Connecticut's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $34,713 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 $35,994 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Connecticut 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.