Dog Groomer Pay and Health Insurance by State

BLS reports a median annual wage for Animal Caretakers (SOC 39-2021) in 23 of the 23 states published here, ranging from $23,740 to $35,990. The 2027 premium tax credit cliff for a single-person household is $63,840; this occupation is above it in 0 of those states.

How do dog groomers get health insurance?

Dog Groomers without a plan through an employer or agency have four routes:

• The marketplace (HealthCare.gov or your state’s own exchange). With household income under 400% of the poverty line — $63,840 for one person for 2027 coverage — the premium tax credit caps what the benchmark Silver plan costs you at a share of income. The BLS median for Animal Caretakers is under that line in 23 of the 23 states published here.
• A spouse’s employer plan. If it offers family coverage, price it against the marketplace: since 2023 your family’s eligibility for the credit is judged on what the family plan costs, not just the employee’s own coverage.
• A group plan or an ICHRA, once you have employees of your own.
• A privately underwritten plan, if you are healthy and over the line. It can cost less than full-price marketplace coverage; it covers less, and its price depends on your health answers.

How much does a dog groomer make?

BLS puts the median wage for Animal Caretakers (SOC 39-2021) at $23,740 in Mississippi up to $35,990 in Maryland, across the 23 states where BLS prints a median (May 2024). Starting pay — the 10th percentile — runs from $17,670 (Mississippi) to $31,200 (Maryland). The top 10% earn more than $59,380 in Utah. These figures count employees; the self-employed are not in the BLS survey, so treat them as the going rate for the work, not your own number. Each state’s pay is in the table above.

What does health insurance cost a dog groomer?

Insurers cannot charge more for your occupation: marketplace prices depend on age, ZIP code, tobacco use and household size. For a single 40-year-old the benchmark Silver plan’s full price for 2027 runs from $491 a month in Maryland to $814 in Mississippi. What you pay depends on income. A single dog groomer earning Mississippi’s median of $23,740 would pay about $84 a month for that plan after the tax credit. Your own household income and size decide the real number; the table above shows the benchmark in each state.

Which hospitals will your plan actually cover?

The federal median for dog groomers is $29,700, clearing the 400% subsidy cliff in none of the 23 states measured. So a premium tax credit probably features in your answer — and that is precisely where the search usually stops. A credit lowers what you pay monthly. It does not add a single hospital to the network, and the cheapest plan after the credit is very often the narrowest one available.

That median counts employees, not the self-employed. If you are 1099 it describes people doing your job on someone else’s payroll — useful as a reference point, not as your number.

Network participation is decided per plan, not per carrier. One insurer sells a broad-network plan and a narrow one side by side in the same county, and a hospital can be contracted with the first and not the second. That makes “does this carrier cover my hospital” unanswerable. The version with an answer is whether this specific plan, in your county, this plan year includes the facilities and doctors you use. A credit makes a narrow plan feel affordable, which is how people end up subsidised into a network that leaves out the hospital they use.

It takes about ten minutes to settle. Search the plan’s own provider directory for your named physicians rather than the hospital system; check the specific campus, because a system can include one site and exclude another; then call the billing office and read them the exact plan name, since that is how the contract is written. Re-check every plan year — these are renegotiated annually.

Look up a specific hospital system → — what each one means for the plans filed in its market.

Want cheaper coverage? Want better coverage? Not happy with what you have now? Same next step for all three — tell me your ZIP and the doctors you need covered.

Check my options →

Related occupations

Other patient-facing and standing work: Dog Trainers · Estheticians · Hair Stylists · Massage Therapists · Musicians · Nail Technicians

Also: Dog Groomers and the subsidy cliff