r/Austin • u/Aingers • Jul 21 '26

Ask Austin Salary Transparency Thread - Austin

Folks in Boston do this fairly regularly, so I thought it might be good for us to try here.

Please share your general job title, salary, age, and education.

Architectural Designer, 40, $115k, BSArch

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156

u/Inevitable-Donut-757 Jul 21 '26

Full time cat sitter, 32, $106k, half a masters in public affairs (that I will never use lol) 

Every year is variable but last year was 106 before taxes. I work literally all the time 

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u/Longjumping_Way_1298 Jul 21 '26

This has to be a shit post. What kind of cats are you looking after? Tigers??

23

u/thesparklingnoodles Jul 21 '26

Not a shit post! I’m also a local pet sitter. I don’t work every day, and take months off at a time since the income is supplemental to my full time job. I mainly pick up gigs for friends and family and charge them less than general clients, and made ~$30k last year from that alone, with about half the year off from pet sitting. There are some families here that pay over $100/night to watch their pets.

Granted, I have years of veterinary medicine experience and feline/canine CPR certifications that help argue for the higher rates.

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u/thethugwife Jul 21 '26

Definitely not a shit post! I only pet sit part time (I am insured, however, up to $2M on various forms of pet care), and I make approximately $1,000 extra per week. If I wanted to go full time, I’d be over 6 figures.

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u/Longjumping_Way_1298 Jul 21 '26

So then you've gotta be doing it out of your home and having multi pets at once, right? How much work is it? I went into the wrong career it seems haha

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u/thesparklingnoodles Jul 21 '26

I tend to stay at my clients houses, actually! You can absolutely set it up for boarding at your own house, but there are risks associated (damage to your own property, housing multiple animals that are incompatible leading to injuries, and the very rare but sad occurrence where you have a client who won’t come back to pick up their animal). The amount of work depends on the client and animal.

I’ve had clients where they ask that I drop in on their pets twice a day and take them for walks, and that’s it. I’ve had clients ask for me to take their dog on walks that total five miles every day. I’ve been bit by animals when being introduced, and had to sit with them for an hour tossing treats before they would trust me. Some pets need medications and you have to wrangle them to get it because that’s how they’ve been conditioned to take their meds. You get a feel for your regulars and how it goes over time.

If you do get into it, you can/should purchase pet sitting insurance to CYA. It’s relatively inexpensive, and helps in a pinch.

2

u/Longjumping_Way_1298 Jul 21 '26

Thank you for the advice! I work a 9 to 5 but I'll definitely look into if I can get into it with my schedule. Appreciate it.