Optometrist Salary in Florida 2026,
$151,670 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $151,670 a year, or $72.92 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 11.1% above the national median of $136,570, and Florida takes no state income tax from it. The band runs $62,490 at the 10th percentile to $196,210 at the 90th, though the working range for full-time practice is better described by the $122,730 quarter-point to the $167,270 seventy-fifth percentile.

North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota at $162,690, then Jacksonville $161,560, Cape Coral-Fort Myers $161,540, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford $160,090 and Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach $157,970. The whole table spans under five thousand dollars and every metro on it sits above the statewide median, which tells you optometric pay in Florida is set by practice type rather than by geography.

It is the tier of the Florida optometry licence that authorises diagnosis and treatment of ocular disease and prescribing from the state's optometric formulary, issued by the Board of Optometry under the Department of Health. In a state with Florida's age profile that authority is the commercial centre of the profession: glaucoma management, macular degeneration monitoring, diabetic retinopathy screening and cataract co-management are ordinary daily work here in a way they are not in younger states. It is the credential behind the $167,270 seventy-fifth percentile.

The data says yes on both sides of the ledger. Pay is 11.1% above the national median, none of it is taxed by the state, and the case mix is medically rich because of the population's age. The state also employs optometrists at only 0.86 times the national rate, which means demand per practitioner is high rather than saturated. The honest counterweight is Florida's cost structure — property insurance on both a home and a practice premises is a serious annual line here, and it is the main thing that eats the tax advantage.

Because the 10th percentile of $62,490 is not measuring junior optometrists — it is measuring part-time, locum and partial-year practice, which is abundant in an occupation with a large commercial retail segment. Optometry has more flexible working arrangements than most clinical professions, and OEWS reports annual wages without adjusting for hours. Read $122,730 at the 25th percentile as the realistic floor for full-time employed practice in this state.

It is the most striking number in this record: a location quotient of 0.86 in the state with one of the oldest populations in the country. Part of the explanation is that Florida's ophthalmology supply is comparatively strong, so some disease management that optometrists handle elsewhere is done by ophthalmologists here. Part is that the state's population growth has consistently outrun the rate at which new optometric practices open. The practical consequence for an individual optometrist is favourable: demand per practitioner is high, which is what supports an 11.1% premium over the $136,570 national median in a state with no income tax to compensate for.

Optometry has a high rate of practice ownership, and OEWS measures wages paid to employees. Owner-optometrists taking profit distributions are under-represented in this estimate, and in Florida those distributions carry no state income tax, so the true earnings ceiling for practice owners sits above what the $196,210 ninetieth percentile shows. At the other end, the $62,490 tenth percentile reflects part-time and locum arrangements rather than full-time rates. And with about 2,350 optometrists statewide the metro rows rest on modest samples.

Scope first — practising at the top of the certified optometrist licence, managing ocular disease rather than refracting, is what the state's case mix rewards and what separates the $122,730 quarter-point from the $167,270 seventy-fifth percentile. Practice setting second: medically-focused and surgical co-management practices pay above commercial retail optometry. Ownership third, and it is worth more in Florida than elsewhere because practice profits escape state income tax entirely. Geography barely at all — the entire metro table spans under five thousand dollars.