Eye exams, glasses, contacts and eye disease. Six figures with regular hours, but only one English-language school in Canada.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$110,000
New grad associate
$85,000
Practice owner
$162,000
Associates are paid a daily rate or a share of billings. Owners earn more from selling glasses and contacts on top of exam fees. Pay varies by province, partly because some provincial health plans pay for eye exams and others do not. Job Bank's census-based median is about $81,000 a year, pulled down by the many optometrists who work part time; its top end is about $162,000.
$85,000 to $110,000
First years as an associate, often paid a daily rate
Rural and small-town clinics pay more and often add signing bonuses. Big cities have more grads chasing the same jobs.
$160,000 or more
Established owners, after expenses
Most of a clinic's profit comes from the optical store, not the exam room. Owners run a retail business alongside the medicine.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is three years of undergraduate study at the cheaper end, the OAT (optometry admission test), four years of the doctor of optometry degree at Waterloo at the Ontario rate, the roughly $17,000 of equipment and books the program requires, the OEBC (Optometry Examining Board of Canada) exams and your first year of registration and insurance. The high end is four years of undergraduate study and the higher Waterloo rate, with the same fees on top. Studying in the United States can cost roughly double either figure. Registration and insurance are annual costs that continue for your whole career.
Total tuition of $100,000 to $150,000 in Canada is typical. Studying in the US can double that.
Few, as an associate
Most associates are self-employed and buy their own health plan and retirement savings.
Chains sometimes offer more
Corporate clinics may offer a salary, a health plan and paid vacation.
Free glasses and contacts
Standard perk.
Predictable hours
Rarely any nights or on-call.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
University, an admission test, then a four-year professional doctorate.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry, physics, calculus and English.
University science
3 to 4 years
At least 3 years, and most successful applicants finish a 4-year degree. Specific prerequisites include organic chemistry, physics, statistics and psychology.
OAT (optometry admission test)
One day, during university
A computer test of biology, chemistry, physics, reading and quantitative reasoning.
OD (doctor of optometry) degree
4 years
4 years. Waterloo is the only English-language program in Canada; Université de Montréal teaches in French. Many Canadians study in the US instead.
OEBC (Optometry Examining Board of Canada) exams and provincial licence
A few months
A written exam and a hands-on skills exam, then register with your provincial college.
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Optics is physics. This one matters more than for most health careers.
Calculus
English
Only registered optometrists can test eyes and prescribe glasses, contacts and eye drops. Each province has a college, for example the College of Optometrists of Ontario. The OEBC (Optometry Examining Board of Canada) exam is accepted everywhere, so moving is straightforward. Optometrists are not medical doctors: eye surgery belongs to ophthalmologists.
University of Waterloo
Ontario. The only English-language program in Canada.
Université de Montréal
Quebec, in French.
US optometry schools
Several accept many Canadians every year. The degree is recognized back home after the OEBC (Optometry Examining Board of Canada) exam.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Residency
An optional 1-year residency in eye disease, low vision or pediatrics. Opens hospital and teaching jobs.
Dry eye and myopia control clinics
Growing private-pay services inside a regular practice.
Specialty contact lenses
Fitting hard and custom lenses for difficult eyes pays well.
Ownership
Buying into a clinic is the main path to top-tier income.
Work in an optical store
Learn frames, lenses and the retail side. Admissions likes it.
Shadow an optometrist
Expected on most applications.
A business course or two
Most optometrists end up running a store.
French
Opens the Montreal program and bilingual jobs in Quebec and New Brunswick.
If you want to do eye surgery, that is ophthalmology: medical school plus a 5-year residency, about 13 years in total. Optometry is the shorter path into eye care, with regular hours and no surgery.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Exams every 20 to 30 minutes, 15 to 25 patients a day. Each one: history, vision test, refraction to find the prescription, eye health check with drops and imaging, then explaining the results and handing off to the optical staff for glasses. A few patients each day have something real: glaucoma, a retinal tear, a scratched cornea, diabetes showing up in the back of the eye.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
The University of Waterloo trains every English-speaking optometrist educated in Canada, about 90 a year. Everyone else studies at the Université de Montréal or in the US.
Optometrists diagnose and treat many eye conditions and can prescribe eye drops in most provinces, but surgery is done by ophthalmologists, who are medical doctors.
In Ontario, the provincial plan pays for eye exams for people under 20 and for seniors. Adults in between usually pay out of pocket unless they have a work benefits plan, which is why many skip it.
Rates of myopia (nearsightedness) in children have climbed sharply worldwide, linked to screen time and less time outdoors. Slowing it down in kids is now a growing part of optometry.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.