Gap shrinks between new graduate, overall veterinary salaries

From 2023-24, while the actual dollar amount of the national average for veterinary salaries climbed, once accounting for inflation, it was a slower rate of growth, especially between 2020 and 2023.

But not all veterinarians have been impacted similarly. New veterinary graduates have been able to secure higher starting wages while salary increases haven’t kept a similar pace for the rest of the profession.

At the same time, educational debt levels have remained stable thanks to lower interest rates and a temporary loan deferment from the government during the pandemic. However, those conditions have changed, which may indicate increases in the debt-to-income ratio for new graduates going forward.

Dr. Chris Doherty, AVMA’s assistant director for strategic business research and outreach, discussed these topics during his presentation “The People of Veterinary Medicine: Who Are They, and How Are They Working?” at the 2024 AVMA Veterinary Business and Economic Forum, held virtually October 8-9. The presentation previewed the results of the 2024 AVMA Senior Survey and 2024 Census of Veterinarians, which will be published in the 2025 State of the Profession Report.

New veterinary graduates

The mean starting compensation in 2024 was around $130,000 for graduates of U.S. and Caribbean veterinary colleges entering full-time employment.

Among new graduates, 60.4% entered into full-time employment, 27.9% into advanced education (internship, residencies, advanced degree), and 6.1% had no offers. This doesn’t include those who received an offer but hadn’t accepted or accepted part time employment.

Full-time employment slightly declined from 2022 and 2023 while advanced education and those with no offers increased slightly.

“Sixty percent (of graduates entering employment) is still a robust number of graduates at this time. Six percent (of graduates not receiving an offer) is not as high as it has been in the past. In early 2010, the excess capacity era, it was a lot higher,” Dr. Doherty said.

Many veterinary graduates are also receiving additional forms of compensation. These additional benefits included signing bonuses (61% of respondents), moving allowances (40%), student loan repayments (18%), and housing allowances (3%).

To better gauge the species focus of new graduate veterinarians, the AVMA Economics team combined results from those going into full-time employment and those as an intern in the same species category. In 2024, 72.9% of veterinary graduates were going into companion animal practice, 9.6% into mixed animal practice, 5.9% into equine practice, and 3.3% into food animal practice.

Overall compensation

Meanwhile, among established veterinarians, the mean income was about $150,000.

Nominal income—or the actual dollar amount—for the overall population of veterinarians has been climbing in past few years, but real—or inflation adjusted—income has been trending downwards in that time.

“From 2023-24, while nominal income climbed, once accounting for inflation, it was a slower rate of growth, especially between 2020 and 2023,” Dr. Doherty said. “We’re back to the point of inflation adjusted incomes lining up with where they were in early 2000s.”

This has led to a compression of income gap.

In 2001, there was a 93% difference in the national average for new graduate real income and real income compensation among all veterinarians. But with new graduates commanding higher inflation-adjusted incomes while the overall veterinary population’s incomes have stayed relatively stagnant, there’s now only a 19% difference between the two. These figures represent national averages, so actual income differences may vary significantly by geographic area and individual circumstances.

Educational debt

The mean debt-to-income ratio (DIR) for new veterinarians entering into full-time employment is 1.4:1, indicating a debt that is 1.4 times the amount of the graduating veterinarian’s income.

The mean DIR had been decreasing since 2021, reflecting the previously historic low interest rates and loan deferment from the past few years. However, in the past year, education debt has started to tick back up as interest rates have increased and borrowers are once again having to pay off their balances.

“I don't want to paint an overly rosy picture. It's great to see the average debt to income ratio at 1.4 compared to the 2:1 or above, on average, that it was previously. But it’s still important to consider that we do have a number of graduates that have debt to income ratios that are at the higher end of that distribution,” he said. “It remains to be seen how this moves over coming years, but previous trend of coming down starting to change a little bit.”

The mean educational debt was just shy of $169,000 for all 33 U.S and two Caribbean veterinary graduates in 2024. Among only veterinary graduates with debt in 2024, that figure was $202,647. These figures account for debt incurred during veterinary college only.

Thirty-nine percent of graduating veterinarians reported having debt between $200,000 and $400,000 in 2024, Dr. Doherty said, adding that just under 16.6% have no debt at all. However, the same percentage (16.6%) of this year’s veterinary graduates have educational debt of $300,000 or higher.

Demographics

The majority of 2024 veterinary graduates are in the 25-27 age range (33%) while the largest group in the profession overall is between 31-35, representing 15%. That is followed by 12% of veterinarians who are 30 or younger and almost 8% are 66 or older, according to data from the AVMA Senior Survey and the Census of Veterinarians.

Regarding gender, 81% of 2024 veterinary graduates are female while 17% are male and the remainer are nonbinary, a gender not listed, or they preferred not to answer. Comparatively, 74% of the profession’s population are female and 24% are male with the rest found in the other categories.

Looking at race and ethnicity, among new veterinary graduates, 81% are white, while 11% said they are Hispanic or Latino, 8% Asian, 4% Black, 2% multiracial, 0% native Hawaiian/pacific islander. Those surveyed could respond to multiple answers, thus, the answers add up to more than 100%.

Census results for the profession showed that 89% of respondents are white, 4% Hispanic or Latino, 2% Asian, 2% multiracial, 1% Black, and 1% self-described.

A slight majority of census respondents are associate veterinarians (57.4%), and practice-owner veterinarians comprised 23.8% and then we can see that smaller groups are hospital or medical directors (7.1%) and relief or contract veterinarians (9.1%).

A version of this story appears in the January 2025 print issue of JAVMA