Salary
Average Salary: $48,640
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,030,000
There's no standard pet sitting salary figure, or even an hourly employee pay rate, as each market determines the prices clients will pay. For example, sitters often command higher rates in affluent suburban areas compared to a middle-income market featuring less discretionary cash.
Here's a helpful example: Pet Sitters of America estimates a national eighteen-dollars-per-visit figure, which considers different markets, dog sizes, and other factors (source). If you do the math, you'll see that eight visits per day would result in a gross income of $144.
Of course, sitters don't take home that much; they have to pay operating expenses out of that income, including gas, maintenance on their cars, business card printing, and laundry money. You think that doggy puke stain is going to clean itself?
Let's say a sitter has hired employees to handle his or her pet sitting overflow. Adding extra staff allows them to serve more clients and expand their geographic service area. They'll need to decide whether they'll pay their employees hourly or per visit, while remembering to select a pay rate that allows them to cover business expenses, too. CPAs can be a lot of help with those decisions.
A good sitter will evaluate their employees' pet care experience when they set pay rates, and consider merit-based raises to encourage good employees to stay with them. Unfortunately, we can't get testimonials from the animals, but if an employee has had four dogs go missing in the last week, they're probably not worth keeping on the payroll. Actually, you should maybe contact the authorities about that employee.