Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,452
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$4,908
16.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,157
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$30,360
Kept after tax
$25,452
Worth in national money
$29,157
State rank
51
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays this job a middle wage of $30,360, 51 of 51 states and about 20.42% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 occupations the state publishes figures for, this job ranks 438. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $30,360 you keep $25,452 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $29,157 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $32,570, since top earners drag the number up.
- Mississippi's $30,360 median for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers places it 51 of 51 states, about 20.42% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Mississippi reports, veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers ranks 438 of 486, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Mississippi is $25,452 after the full tax stack, from $30,360. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $29,157 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $32,570 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $26,060 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $30,360 |
| Top tenth earn over | $45,440 |
| This salary | $30,360 |
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 Mississippi | $25,452 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $26,574 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,810 |
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 | $28,963 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,189 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
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 Mississippi earn under $30,360 and half over. The published range runs $26,060 at the tenth percentile to $45,440 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Mississippi the take-home figure of $25,452, from $30,360, 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 438 of 486 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $29,157, the adjusted value of that $30,360 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Mississippi. 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 438 of 486 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers in Mississippi, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $26,060 to $45,440; 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 Mississippi is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $25,452 from $30,360. 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 438 of 486 locally.
- This $29,157 adjusted figure, worked from $30,360, 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 438 of 486 in the state. The occupation ranks 438 of 486 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 $32,570 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $26,060 and the top tenth $45,440, so most people doing this work in Mississippi sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $29,157.
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 Mississippi's own levy, $25,452 remains.
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 Mississippi is $32,570. 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 ($26,060 to $45,440) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $29,157 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $25,452 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.