$68,090top of the range in Arizona · middle $35,360 / yr
AI augments this role
Pet Groomers in the United States earn a median of $35,360 a year. Pay starts near $27,250. Pay reaches $68,090 at the top of the range in Arizona, the best-paying state for this work among those with at least 500 people in the job.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Animal Caretakers, SOC 39-2021). Last checked 9 September 2026.
Entry level
$27,250
Top of the range · Arizona
$68,090
Education
High school diploma + training
Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Animal Caretakers). Top of the range is the highest state-level figure among states with at least 500 people in the job. AI-impact rating is PayCrunch's editorial assessment. Updated September 2026.
🆕 New & Trending AI Tools for Pet GroomerReviewed September 2026
We track new AI-tool launches every week and refresh this list — here’s what’s gaining traction for Pet Groomer work right now.
NotebookLMNEWFree / $7.99 mo
Google tool that answers questions grounded only in the documents you give it — with citations.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: load your own service policies or a certification study packet and ask questions that stay on the document
GammaNEWFree / $9 mo
Generates polished slide decks and one-pagers from a prompt.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: turn a service menu or training outline into a one-pager you still review line by line
ChatGPTFree / $20 mo
AI assistant for client notes, schedules, and training copy in plain language.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: draft a client update, a boarding or grooming note, or a training plan in plain language — never a veterinary diagnosis
JobberPaid / see site
Field-service platform with AI assist for quoting, scheduling, and invoicing mobile jobs.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: book appointments, send reminders, and invoice from your phone
Canva AIFree / $13 mo
Design platform with AI text-to-image, writing, and one-click layouts.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: make booking posts, after photos, and simple service menus without a designer
ClaudeFree / $20 mo
AI assistant known for careful writing and long-document analysis.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: turn messy visit notes into a clear client report or care-instruction sheet
Google GeminiFree / $20 mo
Google's AI assistant, built into Gmail, Docs, and Search.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: draft and reply inside Google Workspace and research without leaving the page
Microsoft CopilotFree / $30 mo
AI built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: write documents, build spreadsheets, and summarize meetings inside Office
PerplexityFree / $20 mo
AI search engine that answers with live, cited web sources.
How a Pet Groomer uses it: get fast, sourced answers to current questions instead of scrolling search results
The book is full before the first bath
A salon morning starts with wet noses and a schedule that already has names on it. You check who is due, what style the owner asked for, and whether a note from last time said this dog is fearful, elderly, or quick with teeth. You set up a tub, a table, and the clippers you trust. The owner drops the pet, you confirm the haircut in ordinary words, and the day becomes a sequence of baths and clips until the book is done. The shop smells like shampoo and damp coats. The work is hands, eyes, and patience.
You learn each pet as an individual even when the book is packed. One dog stands well and lets you work. Another needs a slower start and a second person nearby. You do not force a finish that frightens an animal into a bite. You pause, you ask a senior groomer, and you send a pet home unfinished if that is the safe choice, with a clear note about why. A beautiful clip on a terrified dog is a failure. A decent clip on a calm dog, finished safely, is the job.
Between pets you clean the tub, you sweep hair, and you reset the table so the next coat does not pick up the last one. You watch the clock without rushing the throat or the feet. You keep water and a break in your own day so your hands stay steady in the afternoon. Salons that skip cleanup look busy and send pets home itchy. Salons that build cleanup into the book look calmer and get rebooked. The book is the business. The way you leave the table is part of the craft.
Baths, clips, and a note the owner can use
The bath is not a rinse on the way to the clip. You wet the coat, you work the shampoo the salon uses through it, you rinse until the coat is actually clean, and you dry in the way that coat needs. Mats come out before they surprise you at the table, or you stop and call the owner if the coat cannot be saved without a much shorter clip than they asked for. You explain that choice before you make it. Owners forgive a shorter dog they agreed to. They do not forgive a surprise.
The clip is the visible product. You follow the style on the card: length, shape, the face, the feet, the tail. You use clippers, scissors, and thinners as the coat requires, and you check the work in a mirror or by walking around the table the way a senior groomer taught you. Ears and nails belong in the visit when the salon includes them and you were trained to do them. You stop if a nail or an ear looks like a veterinary problem. You are a groomer in a salon. You do not diagnose and you do not treat.
Then you write a note the owner can use. How the coat looked when the pet arrived. How the pet behaved. Whether you found a mat, a sore spot you did not touch, or a style change the owner approved. What you would book next time. The note is short and specific. It saves the next groomer from guessing, and it gives the owner something to tell a veterinarian if the pet needs a medical visit. A wordless handoff at the counter wastes the hour you just spent. The note is part of the groom.
Training a salon will actually trust
Most groomers learn in a salon, often as bathers first, or in a grooming school that places them in a shop. The school or the salon is the teacher. A school certificate shows you finished that program and practiced baths and clips under instruction. It proves the program was completed. It does not prove every salon will hand you a full book on Monday. Owners still want to see your hands. People prepare by bathing dozens of pets carefully, then clipping under someone who will stop you, then taking a small book before a large one.
Voluntary certificates from professional groomer groups exist on top of school or shop training. A group grants its own certificate. It shows you met that group's requirements. It is optional unless a particular salon asks for it. Read the group's current rules on the group's own site before you pay anyone who claims to be a shortcut. Experience on a real book, with notes an owner can read, matters as much as the paper. Bring photos of grooms you are allowed to show, and be ready to talk about a dog you stopped on for safety.
Safety habits are part of training, not a side lecture. You learn how your salon muzzles, how two people handle a large dog, and when a pet goes home early. You learn which products the shop uses so you are not mixing your own experiments at the tub. You learn the card system so a style request survives from one visit to the next. A groomer who skips those habits will be fast and then unemployed. A groomer who keeps them will be trusted with the dogs the owner loves most.
Getting hired onto a real book
Salons, grooming shops inside pet stores, and veterinary clinics that keep a grooming table all hire. The settings feel different. A small salon may pay commission and give you a column of the book. A store salon may pay hourly and give you a more scripted day. A clinic salon may see more pets with health notes and may limit what you are asked to do. Read the pay structure before you fall in love with the lobby. Commission on a thin book can pay less than an honest hourly wage while you learn.
The interview is often a working one. You may bathe or clip while someone watches. Talk through what you see in the coat before you start. Say when you would call the owner. Bring school papers if you have them and the name of a groomer who has watched you finish a dog. Describe a pet you handled slowly and a mistake you fixed before the owner arrived. Skip any claim that you can groom every breed on day one. The owner has heard that claim. They are looking for hands they can trust with tomorrow's regulars.
Ask how the book is split, who sets prices, what happens when a pet is too stressed to finish, and how soon a new groomer is left alone. Ask what the last hire struggled with. Ask whether tools are yours or the shop's. A salon that answers those things plainly is easier to join than a salon that only talks about how busy it is. Busy is not a training plan. A named senior groomer is a training plan.
Bather, groomer, then a column of your own
The usual path starts at the tub. Bathers learn coats, products, and how pets behave when they are wet. Groomers add the clip and the note. A senior groomer holds a full column, helps newer people, and may set the style standard the shop wants to be known for. Some groomers then lead a shop floor. Some open a salon, which is a business: rent, booking, hiring, and the same baths and clips on top. You do not have to own a shop to have a career. A groomer with a loyal book inside a fair salon is a complete success.
Your book is your reputation. Owners return because the dog came home comfortable and the clip matched what they asked for. They leave because of a surprise shave, a rude counter, or a pet that seemed worse than when it arrived. Keep notes so the third visit is easier than the first. Rebook before they reach the door if the salon works that way. When you move shops, take only the records you are allowed to take, and rebuild trust dog by dog. The dogs do not care about your title. They care whether your hands are calm.
Pay grows when your column is full, your redos are rare, and the salon can put a difficult coat on your table without hovering. Ask for that trust when you have earned it, and ask what the pay becomes when the book is yours rather than a set of overflow dogs. Keep a simple record of the styles you can finish and the certificates you hold. Use it when you talk to the next owner. Talent is visible on the dog. The record keeps the conversation specific.
May 2025 pay for animal caretakers
These figures are Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Animal Caretakers. That series is broader than salon grooming alone, and the salon day of baths, clips, and a note for the owner is the groomer's work inside it. Entry pay is $27,250. The national median is $35,360. The step from entry to the national median is $8,110. The high end of the published range in Arizona is $68,090. Arizona's median is $38,180. Those Arizona figures differ. The high end is the top of the published range. The median is the midpoint of wages in the state. From the national median up to that Arizona high end is $32,730.
Read the medians in this order. Washington's median is $40,570, the highest median in the set, $5,210 above the national median. Hawaii shows $40,130. Massachusetts shows $39,650. California shows $38,700. Arizona's median is $38,180, last among these and different from Arizona's high end of $68,090. Mississippi holds the lowest median, $26,970. National entry pay of $27,250 differs from Mississippi's median of $26,970. One is the national entry figure. The other is a state median. The spread from Mississippi's median to Washington's median is $13,600.
Ask with the table, not with a guess
Put $27,250 and $35,360 on the counter before you mention $68,090. A new bather can sit near the entry figure while someone checks the tub. A groomer finishing a real column of baths and clips should look at the national median of $35,360. If the offer is still entry money for that work, the $8,110 gap is the distance you can name. Commission changes the arithmetic. Ask what a full book has paid in this shop, in guaranteed wages or in a draw, and write that number beside the median so you are not pricing a hope.
Use the state medians in the same order: Washington $40,570, Hawaii $40,130, Massachusetts $39,650, California $38,700, Arizona's median $38,180. Washington is the highest median, $5,210 above the national figure. Arizona's high end of $68,090 is $32,730 above the national median and differs from Arizona's own median. Do not quote the high end as a typical Arizona paycheck. Mississippi's $26,970 is the lowest median in the set. The $13,600 from Mississippi to Washington is a spread between medians. Keep it separate from the national entry figure of $27,250, which is a different statistic sitting close by on the page.
Ask who pays for tools, what happens on a slow week, and whether the note you write for owners is expected or optional. That note is part of why clients return, so it belongs in the pay talk. Get the guaranteed piece next to $35,360 and next to the state median for the shop's state. Leave $68,090 for a sentence about Arizona's high end of the published range, used when the role truly matches an outer published reach you can describe. The figures check the offer. A dog that goes home comfortable, with a note the owner understands, is why a salon should pay it.
The top of Pet Groomer pay — and how to get there with AI
$68,090what Pet Groomer pay reaches in Arizona
Highest state-level top-of-range annual wage for Animal Caretakers, among states with at least 500 people in the job. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
And the role it leads to — Animal Breeders — reaches $90,550 nationally.
$27,250entry$35,360middle$68,090top end
Skill with clippers gets a pet groomer a full table; deciding what the shop books, charges and records with is what gets a groomer a share of how the shop performs.
Washing, brushing, clipping and trimming coats, cutting nails and cleaning ears is craft work paid per animal almost everywhere. Two other duties on the same list behave differently: examining animals for signs of illness, disease or injury, and collecting and recording weight, size, physical condition and treatments received. Those records are worth money — they cut no-shows, justify prices for difficult coats, and warn you before a dog with a skin condition goes on your table. Most shops keep them badly because the software was chosen years ago by whoever bought the shop. A groomer who can honestly compare DaySmart Software 123Pet, Groom Pro and CEEJS The Pet Groomer's Secretary against how the shop actually works, run a trial and move the data across is doing work an owner has been putting off and cannot do alone.
Your playbook, by where you are now
Just startingBuild the hands and the notes together
Get properly fast on the breeds your shop sees most, and time yourself honestly rather than guessing.
Note the coat condition, temperament, ear and nail findings for every animal you groom, even when nobody requires it.
Learn to spot early signs of skin disease and injury and to raise them with the owner in words that do not frighten them.
Whatever booking software the shop uses, learn every screen of it rather than the three you were shown.
Keep a short list of what the current system will not do, with the date each problem cost you time.
What proves it: A grooming record per animal that the next groomer can work from without asking you.
Realistic span: the first two years on the table
A few years inRun the comparison the owner keeps postponing
Write down what the shop actually needs from a system: deposits, coat notes, vaccination status, repeat scheduling, reminders.
Trial two products properly — a fortnight each with real bookings — instead of watching demonstrations.
Pull the existing client list into Microsoft Excel first, clean the duplicates, and only then talk about migrating anything.
Ask Claude to turn your notes on each product into a side-by-side comparison against your written requirements, then verify each claim in the trial yourself.
Price your difficult work from the records — matted coats, anxious dogs, breeds that take double the time — and show the owner the arithmetic.
What proves it: A written system comparison and a migration the shop completed with you leading it.
Realistic span: years three through five
ExperiencedOwn the operation, not only your table
Take charge of scheduling policy — deposits, cancellation terms, how long each breed is booked for — and hold it against pressure.
Use the health and condition records to build a returning-client programme for animals that need regular maintenance.
Train new groomers on both the handling standard and the record standard, and check the second as carefully as the first.
Move toward ownership or a mobile operation, where the system you chose is now an asset rather than someone else's decision.
Watch where this work pays; Arizona sits at the top for animal caretakers, and breeding is the usual route for groomers who want to work with fewer animals more deeply.
What proves it: A shop running on a system you selected, with pricing you set from its own records.
Realistic span: six years and beyond
The next 90 days
For the next ninety days, keep a defect log. Every time the shop's current software costs you or a colleague time — a double booking, a lost coat note, a client who claims they were never reminded, a price you could not justify — write down the date, what happened and roughly how long it took to fix. Do not editorialise. At ninety days you will have twenty to forty entries, and that page is the most persuasive document anyone in a grooming shop can hold, because owners do not act on opinions about software but they do act on a tally of lost appointments. Bring it with a shortlist of two alternatives and an offer to trial one for a fortnight at no cost to the shop. That offer is what puts a pet groomer in charge of a decision instead of downstream of it.
Wage figures: BLS OEWS, May 2025. The playbook is PayCrunch editorial guidance, not a guarantee of pay or placement.
Every figure is the national median from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS) shown on that role’s own page.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Start with the software that runs the salon and its automations. Tools like DaySmart Pet or Pawfinity handle online booking, recurring billing for memberships, reminders, and marketing — turn on self-service booking and automated reminders first so the calendar fills and no-shows drop.
For free, lean on ChatGPT to write your service menus, membership tiers, and parent-friendly care notes, and Canva to design menus, retail signage, and social posts. Your craft across species is the product; AI is the front desk, the marketing team, and the billing office you don't have to hire.
The one rule, forever: You are responsible for every animal on the table — AI is not. Cats are not small dogs: never use dog products, high-velocity dryers, or dog-style restraint on a cat, and know the stress and brachycephalic risks. Feel for lumps, matting, and skin issues and refer health concerns to a vet — never diagnose or make medical claims about the products you sell. Get the owner's consent before posting any pet, and keep client details out of consumer AI tools.
The plays — exact steps, exact prompts
Do these in order. Each one is copy-paste ready. You do not need to know anything about AI going in.
1
Own the cat-grooming niche almost no one offers
Why this pays: Very few groomers work on cats, so professional cat services — lion cuts, sanitary trims, de-shedding — command premium prices with almost no local competition. Adding cats is one of the fastest ways to raise revenue toward the top of the band.
ChatGPTCanvaDaySmart Pet
1
Build a dedicated cat-grooming menu and intake process, then feature it prominently in DaySmart Pet and on a Canva-designed page so cat owners can actually find you.
2
Create the menu, a safety-focused intake form, and an educational explainer that sells the service.
Copy-paste this prompt
Create a professional cat-grooming service menu (lion cut, comb cut, sanitary/hygiene trim, de-shed/de-matting, bath & blowout, nail caps) with premium pricing for a [suburban] market. Then write a client intake and safety questionnaire (age, temperament, health conditions, prior grooming) and a short 'why professional cat grooming matters' explainer for my website.
Only add cats once you're trained in feline handling; the questionnaire is your safety screen, not a formality.
What you'll haveA high-margin service with little local competition, pulling in premium clients other groomers turn away.
2
Attach retail and home-care products to every groom
Why this pays: Retail — shampoos, brushes, dental products, ear cleaner — is high-margin revenue you can add to visits you're already doing. An extra $10–$30 of product per client compounds fast across a full book.
ChatGPTSquareCanva
1
Stock a small, curated retail shelf and ring it up in Square (or your salon POS). Use Canva for simple 'recommended for your pet' shelf signage.
2
Turn each groom's coat type into a personalized product recommendation.
Copy-paste this prompt
Create a coat-type-based product recommendation guide for a grooming salon (double-coat, curly/doodle, short/smooth, cat, senior/sensitive skin) matching each to a shampoo, a brush, and a maintenance product. Then write a short post-visit text template that recommends the specific products I carry for that pet's coat and reminds them when to rebook.
Recommend, never make medical claims; send health issues to a vet.
What you'll haveA meaningfully higher average ticket from products you can recommend honestly on grooms you're already doing.
3
Sell grooming memberships and packages for recurring income
Why this pays: Monthly bath/groom memberships and prepaid packages smooth out cash flow and lock clients into a rebooking rhythm. Recurring revenue puts a floor under your income and keeps the calendar full in slow months.
DaySmart PetPawfinityChatGPT
1
Set up recurring billing and package plans in DaySmart Pet or Pawfinity so members are charged automatically and pre-booked.
2
Design the tiers and the sales pitch.
Copy-paste this prompt
Design three pet-grooming membership tiers (e.g. monthly bath maintenance, every-6-week full groom, and a premium all-in plan with add-ons and retail discounts) with pricing and clear value for each. Then write a one-paragraph sales script my front desk can use to offer a membership at checkout.
Members should save a little and rebook automatically; that predictability is the point.
What you'll haveA base of recurring, pre-billed clients that stabilizes income and keeps chairs full year-round.
4
Fill slow midweek hours with targeted promotions
Why this pays: Empty Tuesday-morning slots are pure lost revenue in a salon. AI writes targeted win-back and off-peak offers that move idle capacity into paid appointments — every filled dead hour is money you'd otherwise never see.
DaySmart PetChatGPTCanva
1
Use your software's marketing tools (DaySmart Pet) to segment clients who haven't visited recently, then send a targeted offer designed in Canva.
2
Write the win-back and off-peak campaigns.
Copy-paste this prompt
Write a win-back text and email for grooming clients who haven't booked in 8+ weeks, offering a small incentive to rebook. Then write a separate 'midweek special' offer to fill Tuesday–Thursday morning slots. Warm, brief, with a clear booking link. Give me 2 subject-line options for the email.
Discount idle hours, never your prime weekend slots.
What you'll haveFewer dead hours on the schedule and reactivated clients who had drifted away.
5
Build a cross-species reputation engine
Why this pays: Reviews that mention 'cat grooming,' 'anxious dog,' or 'senior pet' pull in exactly the premium clients you want and win the local map. Reputation-driven local search fills the calendar at premium prices without ad spend.
Google Business ProfileDaySmart PetChatGPT
1
Complete your Google Business Profile listing every species and specialty service, then automate review requests through DaySmart Pet after each visit.
2
Write review-request and response templates tailored to the service.
Copy-paste this prompt
Write three short review-request texts for a multi-species grooming salon — one for a cat client, one for an anxious/senior dog, and one for a standard groom — each nudging the client to mention what service they got, with a [review link]. Then write 5 warm templates for responding to reviews, including one for a mildly unhappy client.
Reviews that name a specialty service boost your ranking for exactly those searches. Never post client details.
What you'll haveA stream of specific, keyword-rich reviews that win local search and attract the premium, specialty clients you want.
Your 12-month sequence to the top of the range
How the plays above stack into a path from median pay toward the $68,090 tier.
Month 1
Turn on self-service online booking and automated reminders in DaySmart Pet or Pawfinity; complete your Google Business Profile.
Months 2-3
Launch a curated retail shelf with coat-type recommendations and switch on automated review requests after every visit.
Months 3-6
If trained in feline handling, add a cat-grooming menu; introduce membership tiers with recurring billing.
Months 6-12
Use targeted midweek and win-back promos to fill slow hours; lean into your highest-margin specialty (cats, seniors, anxious pets).
Year 2
With memberships and specialties driving a full book, add staff or a second chair and shift into managing and marketing the salon.
What Pet Groomers earn by state
These are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own figures for Animal Caretakers, state by state — not a cost-of-living adjustment applied to the national number. Only states employing at least 500 people in the occupation are shown, because a state median drawn from a handful of workers is noise rather than a signal.
Washington
$40,570
highest of them · +15% vs the national median
Mississippi
$26,970
lowest of the 49 states and territories that qualify · -24% vs the national median
The same job pays $13,600 more a year at the median in Washington than in Mississippi — 50% higher. That gap is what the Bureau measured, before any question of what it costs to live in either place. The top-of-range figure quoted at the head of this page, $68,090, is a different statistic in a different place: it is the 90th-percentile wage in Arizona. The state that pays the typical worker most and the state where the best-paid go highest are not always the same one.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 39-2021. 49 states and territories clear the 500-employee reporting floor for this occupation; those below it are left out rather than shown with a wide error band.
Free data. Use any of it.
PayCrunch publishes verified, BLS-sourced salary + AI-playbook data on 1,000+ professions — free, no signup.
No. Handling a frightened cat, scissoring a coat, and reading an animal's stress are physical, judgment-heavy work no software can do. AI runs the salon around you — booking, billing, memberships, marketing, reviews. Groomers who adopt it capture more revenue per client; those who don't leave money on the table.
Is cat grooming really worth learning?
For income, it's one of the best moves you can make. Few groomers offer it, so trained cat groomers face little competition and can charge premium prices. Get proper feline-handling training first, use a thorough safety intake, and let AI build the menu and market it — demand usually outstrips supply locally.
I'm not techie — where do I start?
Turn on online booking and automated reminders in your salon software (DaySmart Pet or Pawfinity). Clients book themselves, no-shows drop, and you stop losing calls. Add retail recommendations and memberships once that's running smoothly.
How does this get me toward $68,090?
Raise revenue per client (retail attach, premium specialties like cats) and stabilize the calendar (memberships, reviews, midweek promos). A fuller book at a higher average ticket — captured by owning your chair rather than working commission — is what separates median pay from the top of the range.
Can I recommend products with AI's help?
You can use AI to match coat types to products and write the recommendation, but keep it to grooming and care — never make medical claims, and send any health concern to a vet. The recommendation is yours to stand behind; AI just drafts the wording.
Methodology & sources
Salary (median, 10th, top of the range) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS.
By state — the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own state medians, limited to states employing at least 500 people in the occupation. No cost-of-living arithmetic is applied to a wage anywhere on this page.
The plays — PayCrunch's own step-by-step guidance using publicly available AI tools. Tool names/URLs are real and current as of August 2026; prompts written to work as-is. Verify any professional output before relying on it.