Optometrist Salary Calculator

1. Choose annual salary or hourly wage. Enter your gross pay before tax.
2. Enter your paid hours per week and paid weeks per year. Leave 40 and 52 for a full-time, year-round job.
3. Read the pay conversion and the BLS comparison. Add a second offer to see both against the same table.

The tool does not estimate tax. For a plain pay conversion without the BLS comparison, use the salary calculator.

The optometrist salary calculator is a tool that restates one pay figure in five pay periods and ranks it against national wage data for optometrists. The wage data come from one source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and carry a date.

Optometrists diagnose, manage and treat conditions and diseases of the eye and visual system. They run vision tests, prescribe eyeglasses and contact lenses, give care before and after eye surgery, and check for signs of diseases such as glaucoma and diabetes. State law sets which medications and minor procedures they may provide.

The table is occupation code 29-1041. Ophthalmologists are physicians and have a different code. Optometrist wages are tightly grouped: the 90th percentile, $202,180, is 2.7 times the 10th percentile, $74,870. The mean of $141,550 is only $4,980 above the median, so the two give a similar picture.

The tool does not forecast pay by region, experience or practice setting. BLS publishes no such adjustments in this table, so none are applied.

The calculator converts your pay to one year, then finds its place between two published BLS percentiles. BLS publishes five percentile wages per occupation. The tool draws a straight line between the two nearest ones.

1. Annual pay: an hourly wage is multiplied by your hours and weeks. A salary is used as entered.
2. Hourly pay: annual pay is divided by hours per week times weeks per year.
3. Band: the tool finds the two BLS percentiles on each side of your pay.
4. Approximate percentile: for $128,000 the nearest points are the 25th percentile ($109,400) and the median ($136,570). 25 + (128,000 - 109,400) / (136,570 - 109,400) x 25 = 42.1, shown as about the 42nd.
5. Gap: annual pay minus the BLS median of $136,570.

Pay below the 10th percentile or above the 90th gets no number, because BLS publishes no points beyond them. A wage that BLS shows only as at or above its reporting limit is never replaced with a guess. BLS annual wages equal the hourly wage times 2,080 hours. A part-time schedule lowers annual pay but not the hourly rate, so the tool also places your hourly rate. To convert a salary on other schedules, try the salary to hourly calculator.

An optometrist earns $68 an hour for a 38-hour week and 50 paid weeks. A second employer offers $72 an hour on the same schedule.

1. Hours per year: 38 x 50 = 1,900.
2. Annual pay: 68 x 1,900 = $129,200.00.
3. Monthly pay: $10,766.67. Biweekly pay: $4,969.23.
4. Hourly percentile: $68.00 sits between $65.66 and $79.39, at about the 54th percentile.
5. Annual percentile: $129,200.00 sits between $109,400 and $136,570, at about the 43rd percentile.
6. Gap to the median: -$7,370.00, or -5.4%.
7. Second offer: 72 x 1,900 = $136,800.00, which is +$7,600.00 (+5.9%) and about the 50th percentile.

The hourly rate is above the national median, yet annual pay is below it. The schedule explains the gap: 1,900 hours a year is 180 hours short of the 2,080 that BLS assumes. The $4 raise lifts annual pay to almost exactly the median.

Industry

Where an optometrist works moves the median more than any other published factor. The Occupational Outlook Handbook lists these May 2025 medians.

The largest employer pays the lowest of the four medians. The highest median belongs to the smallest group.

Mean Wage by Industry

The wage survey ranks industries by mean hourly wage: outpatient care centers $92.81, general hospitals $79.62, offices of physicians $74.94, management of companies $73.33, and health and personal care retailers $72.82. Offices of other health practitioners hold 27,380 of the 42,790 employee jobs, or 64.0 percent.

Schedule

Most optometrists work full time, but part-time work is common, and schedules may include evenings and weekends. Unpaid weeks and short weeks reduce annual pay.

Self-Employment

The Handbook reports that 5 percent of optometrists are self-employed. The wage survey leaves them out, along with owners and partners of unincorporated practices.

Optometrists earn more than the median healthcare practitioner and less than half of what ophthalmologists earn. All medians are BLS May 2025 figures read on 2026-10-02.

Ophthalmologists complete medical school and residency. Optometrists complete a 4-year Doctor of Optometry program. The two wage tables are not interchangeable.

Weighing a Retail Offer Against a Private Office

Enter one offer as your pay and the other as the second offer. Both land on the same national table.

Costing a Four-Day Week

Enter your hourly rate, then change hours per week from 40 to 32. Annual pay falls by a fifth while the hourly percentile holds.

Checking Pay Against Debt

New graduates can compare a first-year wage near the 25th percentile, $109,400, with their loan payment using the student loan payoff calculator.

1. Quoting the Ophthalmologist Figure

The $300,080 median belongs to ophthalmologists, who are physicians with a separate BLS code, not to optometrists.

2. Expecting the Outpatient Median Everywhere

Outpatient care centers pay a $207,030 median but hold 4 percent of jobs. Offices of optometrists hold 61 percent.

3. Counting Unpaid Weeks as Paid

Hourly staff without paid leave should enter the weeks they are paid. Fifty-two overstates annual pay.

4. Comparing a Per-Diem Rate with a Salary

A daily rate with no benefits and a salary with benefits are not equal at the same gross figure. The tool compares gross pay only.

Optometrists need a Doctor of Optometry degree and a state license. The program takes 4 years, and applicants typically hold a bachelor degree. Some graduates add 1 year of advanced clinical training in a specialty.

BLS projects optometrist employment to grow 10 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average. Jobs are projected to rise from 45,100 to 49,400, with about 2,000 openings a year. BLS links the demand to an aging population, more myopia, digital eye strain and diabetes-related eye disease.

The pay conversion is exact arithmetic. The percentile is an estimate, because BLS publishes only five points of the wage distribution for optometrists. The result is an estimate from survey data. It is not a pay offer and not a prediction of your pay.

The BLS mean annual wage for optometrists was $141,550 in May 2025, and the median was $136,570. The middle half earned between $109,400 and $165,120.

The BLS median hourly wage was $65.66 in May 2025. The 10th percentile was $35.99 and the 90th percentile was $97.20.

Outpatient care centers have the highest BLS median at $207,030, followed by retail trade at $159,250. Offices of optometrists, the largest employer, have a median of $129,250.

No. The BLS median for ophthalmologists, except pediatric, was $300,080 in May 2025, which is more than double the optometrist median of $136,570.

BLS counts 42,790 employee jobs in its wage survey and about 45,100 jobs in total for 2025, including the self-employed.

BLS projects 10 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, against 3 percent for all occupations, with about 2,000 openings a year.

On annual pay, yes, because BLS annual wages assume 2,080 hours. On hourly pay, no. The tool shows both percentiles so part-time pay is judged fairly.

Yes. Enter one offer as your pay and the other in the second offer field. The tool shows the dollar and percent difference and the percentile of each.

No. It is gross pay before tax and deductions. The calculator does not estimate tax.

• BLS OEWS Profiles, May 2025 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics data tool; select 29-1041 Optometrists. Read 2026-10-02.)
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: Optometrists (US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Duties, education, pay and 2025 to 2035 outlook. Read 2026-10-02.)
• OEWS frequently asked questions (US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Who is covered, how wages are defined, the 2,080 hour rule and the reporting limit.)
• OEWS data tables, May 2025 release (US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Full national, state and area files.)