Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers in Florida
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$32,576
after federal, FICA and Florida tax
Tax takes
$5,254
13.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,489
Florida costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Florida — 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
$37,830
Kept after tax
$32,576
Worth in national money
$31,489
State rank
20
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Florida sits in the middle of the pack for this job. The median is $37,830, ranking 20 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Measured against other jobs in Florida, this one sits low: 420 of 493 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $37,830, tax leaves $32,576 — and because Florida is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $31,489 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $40,030, since top earners drag the number up.
- Florida occupies the middle band for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers: a median of $37,830, ranking 20 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers occupies position 420 of 493 in Florida's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- After tax, $32,576 remains from the Florida median of $37,830 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $31,489 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $40,030 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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 | $31,090 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $37,830 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,270 |
| This salary | $37,830 |
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 Florida | $32,576 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $32,576 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,034 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $37,830 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$2,460 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 103 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Florida earn under $37,830 and half over. The published range runs $31,090 at the tenth percentile to $47,270 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Florida the take-home figure of $32,576, from $37,830, 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 420 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Florida, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $31,489, the adjusted value of that $37,830 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 420 of 493 in the state.
- Figures are distribution medians for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Florida, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $31,090 to $47,270; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Florida is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $32,576 from $37,830. 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 420 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Florida, so $31,489 — the adjusted value of that $37,830 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 420 of 493 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 $40,030 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $31,090 at the bottom tenth to $47,270 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Florida costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $31,489 rather than its face figure.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Most of it arrives. $32,576 lands after tax, since there is no state income tax on wages here — though the federal floor is identical in every state.
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 Florida is $40,030. 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 ($31,090 to $47,270) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Florida rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Florida's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $31,489 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $32,576 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.