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Animal Caretakers in Pennsylvania

Animal Caretakers

Feed, water, groom, bathe, exercise, or otherwise provide care to promote and maintain the well-being of pets and other animals that are not raised for consumption, such as dogs, cats, race horses, ornamental fish or birds, zoo animals, and mice. Work in settings such as kennels, animal shelters, zoos, circuses, and aquariums. May keep records of feedings, treatments, and animals received or discharged. May clean, disinfect, and repair cages, pens, or fish tanks. Excludes “Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers” (31-9096) and “Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals” (45-2093).
$15.08median, an hour
$16.40mean (average), an hour
9,910people employed in this job here

The bar runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile; the darker part is the middle half of earners.

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The spread

US median
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How pay for this job is spread here: higher means more people earn around that amount, and the darker middle is the middle half of earners. The dots are BLS's published 10th, 25th, median, 75th and 90th percentiles; the curve between them is our smooth estimate. Hover or tap a dot for its figure.

This job is less common here than nationally: 1.6 in every 1,000 jobs (location quotient 0.95).

Where this job pays most

Median an hour by state, from lower to higher pay as in the key below. Hover or tap a state for its figure. Living costs differ too, so a higher wage is not always more to spend.

Top metro and nonmetro areas

Across Pennsylvania

Link to this page: /wages?occ=392021&area=4200000&per=hour. Your pay is never part of a link.

About

The data

Every figure comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, May 2025 estimates, retrieved November 7, 2026. BLS updates them once a year, in spring; this site is refreshed after each release.

What the numbers mean

Median: half of the people in the job earn less, half earn more. Mean: the average, which a few high earners can pull up. Percentiles: the 25th percentile is the wage that a quarter of people earn less than.

Wages are what employers pay before taxes, including tips and commissions but not overtime, bonuses or benefits. They cover employees of businesses and governments, not the self-employed.

Annual wages are hourly wages times 2,080 hours (40 hours for 52 weeks), unless BLS publishes only one of the two. For jobs that are not usually full-time all year, such as teachers or actors, BLS gives only annual or only hourly figures, and so does this site.

Where your pay falls

BLS publishes five percentiles. When your pay falls between two of them, this site estimates your position in a straight line between them, so “around the 40th percentile” is an estimate, not a BLS figure.

The bell curve under “The spread” is also an estimate: a smooth log-normal curve fitted to those five percentiles. The dots on it are the published figures.

Gaps

BLS leaves out wages it cannot estimate reliably, often because few people do that job in that area; those show as n/a. For some jobs, mostly physicians, it withholds high wages and says only that they are at or above $115.00 an hour or $239,200 a year; those show with a “+”.

Areas

Metro areas follow the federal definitions BLS uses, and the rest of each state is split into nonmetropolitan areas. A metro area that crosses a state line is listed under each state it covers.

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Last updated November 7, 2026

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Last updated November 7, 2026

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The data

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