Optometric assistants earned a median of $38,650 a year — $18.58 an hour — in the closest federal proxy row for the job: ophthalmic medical technicians (SOC 29-2057) employed in offices of optometrists, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 OEWS survey.
BLS has no occupation code for optometric assistants or optometric technicians, so every optometric assistant salary figure on this page comes from a labeled proxy row.
The page uses two: this row, plus a medical-assistant row, and spells out hourly pay, the technician comparison, certification, settings and states.
Optometric assistant pay: hourly and annual
With no BLS occupation code for either role (see above), federal wage data for this job comes from labeled proxy occupations: ophthalmic medical technicians (SOC 29-2057) — the closest available group — and medical assistants (SOC 31-9092).
The medical assistant row belongs on this page because BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook has no profile for ophthalmic medical technicians at all; it describes medical assistants who work for optometrists in its Medical Assistants profile.
In offices of optometrists (NAICS 621320), the ophthalmic medical technician row counts 22,900 jobs with a median of $38,650 a year ($18.58 an hour), a mean of $41,090, a 10th percentile of $30,930 and a 90th percentile of $51,420.
The medical assistant row in the same industry row counts 11,060 jobs, with a median of $38,170 a year ($18.35 an hour), a mean of $40,410, a 10th percentile of $32,070 and a 90th percentile of $48,730.
| Percentile | Ophthalmic medical technicians (29-2057) | Medical assistants (31-9092) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $30,930 | $32,070 |
| 25th | $36,030 | $35,860 |
| 50th (median) | $38,650 | $38,170 |
| 75th | $45,970 | $45,400 |
| 90th | $51,420 | $48,730 |
Both columns are annual percentile wages from the same May 2025 OEWS survey, both in offices of optometrists (NAICS 621320).
Nationwide, the technician occupation's median was $45,570 a year ($21.91 an hour) in May 2025, the mean was $47,060, and the survey counted 71,010 wage-and-salary jobs across all industries.
Its percentiles were $35,700 at the 10th, $38,170 at the 25th, $45,570 at the 50th, $51,390 at the 75th and $61,940 at the 90th.
The medical assistant occupation's national median was $45,690 a year ($21.97 an hour), mean $46,120, across 817,870 jobs.
Its percentiles were $36,050 at the 10th, $38,470 at the 25th, $45,690 at the 50th, $49,180 at the 75th and $59,310 at the 90th.
The pattern both proxies show: each occupation pays less inside optometry offices than it does economy-wide.
Read every figure as wage-and-salary pay — the OEWS survey behind these numbers does not collect pay for self-employed workers.
Optometric assistant vs optometric technician pay
Side by side, the two proxy rows sit close together — and that is the finding.
In offices of optometrists, the ophthalmic medical technician row (22,900 jobs) shows a median of $38,650 a year ($18.58 an hour), while the medical assistant row (11,060 jobs) shows $38,170 ($18.35 an hour).
Both numbers are medians from the same May 2025 OEWS release and the same industry row, so the comparison is like-for-like.
The technician row's median is the higher of the two by a small margin; across all industries the order flips, with medical assistants at $45,690 and ophthalmic medical technicians at $45,570 (71,010 jobs).
Where the technician occupation separates is at the top of its range and across its settings.
Nationally it ran from $35,700 at the 10th percentile to $61,940 at the 90th, with the median at $45,570.
By setting, the same occupation's median was $38,650 in offices of optometrists, $47,200 in offices of physicians and $61,620 in general medical and surgical hospitals.
Neither row is a promise about a job title: the rows group payroll jobs by BLS's occupation definitions, and BLS has no optometric-assistant or optometric-technician code to code a title against.
Our research carries no mapping of which posted titles land in which row.
What the data supports is narrower: inside optometry offices the two occupations' medians differ only slightly, and the technician occupation stretches to higher percentiles and to settings the assistant-side rows do not reach in this page's data.
Certified (CPOA) pay: is there a premium?
The Certified Paraoptometric Assistant (CPOA) is one of the four paraoptometric certifications the American Optometric Association offers, alongside the CPO, CPOT and CPOC.
The optometric assistant career guide covers the eligibility routes for each credential; this section stays on pay.
On pay, our research did not find an official survey that prices a CPOA premium, and the BLS wage rows above do not split pay by certification.
The employer postings the research surfaced point the same way — the retail assistant and technician postings we read listed flat or ranged hourly rates and did not mention certification pay differentials.
What the AOA's Commission on Paraoptometric Certification (CPC) documents for the CPOA is eligibility routes — experience, approved programs, reference forms — not pay; nothing we found prices the credential.
Compare posted ranges, not titles
Optometric assistant pay by setting and state
The data splits into two settings: practice-based work and retail optical.
Practice-based pay is the offices-of-optometrists rows above — a $38,650 median in the ophthalmic medical technician proxy and $38,170 in the medical assistant proxy.
Retail surfaces through dated postings on employers' own job boards, and each posting is one location's range, never a chain-wide rate.
Visionworks-hosted “Clinical Specialist/Optometric Assistant” postings on October 12, 2026 listed $11.09–$14.97 an hour part time in Georgia stores (such as Dunwoody) and $17–$25.50 an hour full time in Oneonta, New York.
A National Vision America's Best part-time “Optometric Technician - Medical Assistant” posting in Chicago, Illinois, seen on October 12, 2026, listed $17.05–$20.72 an hour.
Warby Parker “Optometric Technician” postings on October 12, 2026 listed flat hourly rates of $17.00 in Scottsdale, Arizona to $20.00 in New York, New York — a New York part-time posting listed $18.00.
Note the titles: the postings above carry overlapping labels — assistant, technician, medical assistant — which is one more reason to read the posted duties rather than the title.
By state as nationally, that missing occupation code means BLS publishes no median under an optometric-assistant title.
The nearest state rows that exist belong to the ophthalmic medical technician occupation, so read them as the technician proxy's map, not as optometric assistant pay.
The highest medians were Minnesota ($63,080; 720 jobs), Hawaii ($58,240; 190 jobs) and Wisconsin ($56,420; 1,260 jobs); the lowest were Wyoming ($35,740; 110 jobs), Utah ($35,950; 680 jobs) and Mississippi ($36,220; 690 jobs).
Among the states holding the most jobs in that occupation: Florida (7,020 jobs; $46,830 median), Texas (6,540; $43,640), New York (4,250; $48,440), New Jersey (4,150; $49,050) and Illinois (3,250; $47,100).
Proxy rows, not a price for your state
Raises, outlook and the path to technician roles
Our research found no source that tracks typical raises for optometric assistants, so what moves pay has to be read from the distributions above.
The percentiles set the band: in offices of optometrists, the technician proxy runs from $30,930 at the 10th percentile to $51,420 at the 90th, and the medical assistant row from $32,070 to $48,730; nationally the technician occupation reaches $61,940 and the medical assistant occupation $59,310.
Setting is the lever the technician data documents: the same 29-2057 occupation medians $38,650 in optometry offices, $47,200 in offices of physicians and $61,620 in hospitals.
The step into technician work is the other path the data shows — the technician occupation's 90th percentile reaches $61,940 nationally, and BLS lists its typical entry education as a postsecondary nondegree award.
On the credential ladder, a current CPO is one route into the CPOA, and a current CPOA is the experience route into the CPOT; the optometric assistant career guide details each route's rules.
Outlook is a projections series, not a wage series: BLS projects ophthalmic medical technicians (SOC 29-2057) to grow 21.4% from 72,500 jobs in 2025 to 88,000 in 2035, with 11,800 openings a year on average.
That projections count includes the self-employed, unlike the OEWS wage figures earlier on this page — the two series are different counts, and this page keeps them separate.
Career information, not medical, licensing, legal, clinical, billing or coding advice. Wage figures are BLS OEWS May 2025 data covering wage-and-salary workers. Confirm certification details with the American Optometric Association's Commission on Paraoptometric Certification and current wage data with BLS before you act on them.