Salaries for veterinary assistants

Salaries for veterinary assistants depend of course on the standard of living in each country studied. Because of this, it is interesting to take into account also the legal minimum wage.

Country	DK	ES	FI	FR	HU	PT	RO	SI	SK	UK
Legal minimum wage (A)	1 943	550	800	1 286	200	380	90	354	160	919
Minimum salary for qualified veterinary assistants (B)	2 826	600	1 341	1 505	300	500	100	548	180	999
Minimum salary for non-qualified veterinary assitants	1 949	400	800	1 366	200	500	90	354	160	917
Ratio (B/A)	1.45	1.50	1.50	1.17	1.50	1.32	1.10	1.55	1.13	1.09

Analysis of the above chart shows that Denmark, France and Finland have the highest salaries for their veterinary assistants with 2 826 €, 1 505 € and 1 341 € respectively. The United Kingdom, with almost 1 000 €/month can also be added to this first group of countries.

In the other countries (Eastern countries, Portugal and Spain), salaries for qualified assistants remains low, below 600 € even though it is around one and a half times the legal minimum wage.

In conclusion, salaries for qualified assistants are high in the first fifteen countries in the EU relative to their legal minimum wages. However, salaries remain low, below 500 € in the new member countries including Portugal.