How to hire a dog groomer: what to require, what to pay, where to find candidates and how to screen

Start with the team you already have, and with what the three listings on this board cover. A bather listing centers on bathing, brushing and drying; a grooming assistant supports a groomer with prep and finish work; a dog groomer takes clients through the full service — the haircut, the finish, the conversation with the owner. If nobody on your team grooms yet, your first groomer changes what you can sell; if you already run grooms, another groomer adds capacity, and a bather or assistant multiplies it.

Then translate the role into your setting. A salon groomer works from fixed tables and tubs against an appointment book. A mobile groomer works alone, in a van, on a route — driving and van care belong in the expectations. A vet-clinic groomer works around animals under veterinary care. A daycare or boarding facility adding grooming is adding a service line, with its own intake and handling questions.

For the role itself — what a dog groomer does day to day — the career guide covers it. For the hire, what matters is fit: the coat types and cuts on your books, the dogs you accept (matted, anxious, senior), and whether the person will work alone or beside a lead groomer.

Set schedule expectations early. BLS says part-time work is common among animal caretakers and that schedules may include evenings, weekends and holidays, with round-the-clock care in 24-hour facilities like kennels. If your salon runs Saturdays, write that into the ad rather than discovering it in week two.

Handling risk belongs in the same conversation. BLS notes that animal care work can be physically or emotionally demanding and that workers risk injury when caring for animals. The more difficult dogs you accept, the more handling experience you need on the table — and the harder your screening should test for it.

One caution on workload: our research found no primary-source benchmark for how much work a groomer can carry. The number depends on the services you book, coat condition and handling time, so set expectations from your own booking history rather than from a figure you read somewhere.

BLS describes two routes into the trade: pet groomers typically learn by working under an experienced groomer, and grooming schools are the other route. Screen for demonstrated skill rather than one pedigree. Ask for a portfolio of finished grooms — before-and-after photos across the coat types you actually book — and have the candidate walk you through what they did and why.

Match the requirement to your books. If your book includes scissor-finish trims, hand stripping or other technique-specific work, say in the ad which cuts, coat types and techniques you expect a hire to handle on their own.

On licensing, our state-by-state research found no state licensing individual groomers by exam — so there is no exam-based state groomer license for a job ad to require. The closest thing in our research is Colorado's PACFA independent-contractor groomer license: a category of Colorado's facility act under which a licensed groomer may groom as an independent contractor at up to 3 PACFA-licensed grooming facilities with the same groomer license. It is a facility-act listing with a fee, not a skills test.

What does carry legal weight is the facility side: state facility, kennel and business licensing can apply to a grooming business, along with city and county permits — and that licensing belongs to the business, not to the hire. Confirm your own requirements with your state agriculture department and your city or county. The licensing overview sits in our guide to hiring for grooming and pet care businesses.

Certifications are your preference, not the law's. BLS notes certifications are not required for animal care and service workers. Write any credential you want — an NDGAA or IPG title, fear-free handling training — as "preferred," and verify a claimed credential with the body that issues it rather than taking the resume's word.

Finally, weigh experience level against your risk. If you accept matted, anxious or large dogs, weight proven handling over speed. If you run a training salon, a junior with a strong portfolio and a coachable manner may serve you better than a fast finisher who will not follow your handling policy.

Pick the structure before the number. DOL's list of retail pay methods runs from straight salary or hourly pay, through salary plus commission and quota bonuses, to straight commission and straight commission with an advance, guarantee or draw. Salons adapt that list into hourly pay, a commission on each service, or a base plus commission. Commission is a share of the service price you set — and our research found no primary source establishing an industry-wide percentage, so set the share yourself.

For a market benchmark, use BLS and label it. BLS publishes no groomer-only wage. In the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, animal caretakers (includes groomers) earned a national median of $17.00 an hour, or $35,360 a year, across 266,910 wage-and-salary jobs. The 25th percentile was $14.34 and the 75th was $19.26; the 90th percentile reached $24.07. That is a payroll series for the whole occupation, and it excludes the self-employed — booth renters and owner-groomers are not in it. The percentile and state tables live on our dog groomer pay data page.

Settings differ within the occupation. BLS's industry rows for animal caretakers put the May 2025 median at $16.92 an hour in other personal services, $15.46 in veterinary services, and $16.96 in other miscellaneous retailers — a retail group that includes pet stores alongside other retailers. Read them as orientation for the industry, not as groomer pay.

Employer postings are their own numbers. PetSmart's careers page says its stylists earn a guaranteed hourly wage and up to 55% commission, plus paid time off, health benefits and merchandise discounts. That is one employer's stated ceiling, not a market rate. Set your percentage from your own service prices and what it takes to keep a full book.

Whatever you pick, the FLSA floor travels with it. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and where your state's is higher you pay the higher rate. Commission does not switch off overtime. Under FLSA section 7(i), a commissioned employee of a retail or service establishment is exempt from overtime premium pay only if three conditions hold together. The first is employment by a retail or service establishment. The second: a regular rate above 1.5 times the applicable minimum wage for every hour in a week with overtime. The third: more than half of pay over a representative period coming from commissions on the goods or services you sell. That period runs at least one month and no more than one year, and you as the employer select it. If the regular rate is not above 1.5 times the minimum wage in a given week, there is no exemption for that week; unless all three conditions are met, time-and-a-half is owed for the hours over 40.

The establishment test is the hard one. DOL's regulation describes retail and service establishments through a 75% non-resale sales test and industry recognition, warns that not every business selling at retail qualifies, and its examples of public-facing services name barber shops — not pet grooming. Whether your salon qualifies turns on its own facts, so confirm with DOL's Wage and Hour Division or counsel before treating commission groomers as exempt. DOL's Field Operations Handbook adds that a veterinary hospital may qualify if the tests are met, which matters for a clinic paying an in-house groomer on commission.

Two details decide the math. First, what counts: tips never count toward the more-than-half test, and neither does any portion of pay that is a salary or an hourly or daily rate. Second, where commission lands: it is part of the regular rate used to compute overtime — for a weekly commission you add it to the week's other earnings, divide by hours worked, and pay an extra half of that rate for each overtime hour. Keep the records that back all of it: daily and weekly hours and earnings.

Tips are the employee's. An employer — including managers and supervisors — may not keep any part of employees' tips. Build your tip policy around that rule and your state's.

Promotions change the rules. A senior groomer who becomes your salon manager falls under the white-collar exemption rules, where the federal salary level is $684 per week as of October 2026 — and salary alone exempts nobody, because the duties tests still apply and state thresholds can be higher.

Your bench first. A bather or assistant you have already trained knows your dogs, your clients and your policies — and BLS's description of how groomers learn, under an experienced groomer, is exactly that arrangement. Big-box chains formalize the same idea: Petco's own grooming careers page shows a ladder from bather to Petco Pet Stylist, Pet Stylist Pro, Grooming Salon Manager and Grooming Mentor. That ladder appears in an employee testimonial on the page, so read it as one employer's story about its own titles — and build your own version rather than copying theirs.

Working groomers second. For an experienced hire, work the channels where groomers already grooming somewhere are reachable: referrals, professional networks, suppliers and regional grooming events. Word of mouth among your clients helps too.

Schools third. Grooming schools are the other route BLS names. Employer-run academies are a parallel path: PetSmart's salon careers page describes its grooming path as bather, then its paid Grooming Academy, then Pet Stylist in Training and Professional Pet Stylist, with bathers bathing over 125 dogs before moving on to the Academy. A candidate out of any training program arrives trained but new to your salon's habits and pace — budget the mentoring time for it.

Career changers fourth. Human hair styling is an adjacent pool on paper: BLS's comparison shows hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists earned a May 2025 median of $17.21 an hour — nearly identical to animal caretakers' $17.00. The human-salon occupation reaches a far higher top end, though: $34.23 at the 90th percentile against $24.07 — a gap worth addressing in the pitch, and a reason a visible pay-progression plan belongs in your offer.

However you source, the ad decides who applies. Write it from an honest job description: under the ADA, a written description prepared before advertising is evidence of a job's essential functions, so list the handling, restraint and physical duties as your business actually sets them.

Pay disclosure is state law where it exists. Colorado requires postings to disclose compensation, benefits and how and when to apply, and bars asking applicants about pay history. Washington requires the wage scale or salary range and a benefits description — but only for employers with 15 or more employees. Posting rules are state and local law and they vary, so check your state labor agency before you post.

And look at what candidates see: the dog groomer job listings show the postings yours will compete with.

Screen in three passes: the portfolio, the practical, the interview.

The portfolio. Finished-groom photos across the coat types and cuts you book. Ask the candidate to narrate one — what they saw in the coat, what they changed, what they would do differently. A groomer who can explain their work will explain your dogs to your clients.

The practical. A skills test or trial groom shows you finishing quality, table safety and pace. The EEOC's guidance on tests applies even here: if you require applicants to take a test, it must be necessary and related to the job. It also must not exclude applicants by protected group or applicants 40 and older unless based on a reasonable factor other than age.

Pay for trial time. Our research found no DOL rule blessing a short unpaid working interview. For unpaid interns and students at for-profit employers, DOL applies the courts' seven-factor primary beneficiary test, and no single factor decides it. One factor asks whether the person's work complements paid employees or displaces them — and a trial groom on a paying client's dog looks like displacing paid work. Treat an unpaid trial as a wage risk.

The interview. Keep questions to what is essential to judge qualification — the EEOC treats questions about race, sex, national origin, age or religion as irrelevant to that judgment, and risky as evidence. Do not ask for a photograph before an offer; if you need one for identification, it can come after the offer is accepted. Spend the time on scenarios instead: a heavily matted coat the owner wants kept long, a dog stressing on the table, a growth you notice while drying. The answers you want sound like stop-and-refer — the groom stops, the owner hears what was noticed, the veterinarian decides what it is. Groomers spot and refer; they do not diagnose.

Background checks, if you run them, follow the FCRA script: a written, stand-alone notice and the applicant's permission before you order the report; a pre-adverse action notice with the report and the FCRA rights summary before you decline; an adverse action notice after. The FTC advises checking state law too, because states can restrict an employer's use of consumer reports.

Design the first month around how groomers actually learn. BLS's description doubles as an onboarding plan: pair the new groomer with your experienced groomer, start them on the services and coat types you agreed on, and expand from there. Keep the training paid. Training time is unpaid only if all four tests hold — outside regular working hours, truly voluntary, not directly related to the job, and no productive work performed. Teaching grooming on salon time sits inside working hours and is directly related to the job, so it fails the tests — it is paid time.

Watch the edges of the clock. Work an employer knows or has reason to believe is happening is paid time even when unrequested — under that rule, a groomer finishing a dog after clock-out is paid time if you know or have reason to believe it is happening. Set an end-of-day routine that makes finishing-up part of the paid schedule rather than a favor.

Put the expectations in writing on day one: the schedule, including which evening, weekend and holiday rotations apply; the handling and bite policies; sanitation; and what a groomer does when they notice something on a dog — stop, tell the owner, refer to the veterinarian. Written expectations set the standard and protect the hire.

Keep them with structure rather than a counter-offer. BLS projects employment of animal care and service workers to grow 11 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 69,400 openings a year — many of them from replacing workers who leave the occupation. A trained groomer who walks takes capacity you paid to build. A visible ladder, regular reviews and a pay progression plan give ambition somewhere to go inside your salon.

If you use bonuses, mind the mechanics before you promise them. Bonuses announced to keep people, and retention bonuses contingent on still being employed at payout, belong in the overtime regular rate. So do attendance, production, quality and safety bonuses — calling a bonus "discretionary" does not make it so. Referral bonuses stay excludable only if participation is strictly voluntary, the recruiting takes no significant time, and it is limited to after-hours asking among friends and acquaintances. A sign-on bonus paid under a policy with a clawback may not be excluded as a gift.

One more structure to consider as you grow: DOL's Office of Apprenticeship added Pet Groomer to its list of occupations recognized as apprenticeable in January 2026. If you want a formal training framework at that point, ask your state apprenticeship agency about registering a program in the occupation.

Employer information, not legal, tax, insurance or veterinary advice. The rules above come from DOL's Wage and Hour Division, the EEOC and the FTC, and from the statutes and state agencies behind them — and they change. Confirm with the agency that administers yours, and with counsel on pay plans and classifications, before you act.