I worked over 60 hours a week, had one of the higher paying rates, pulled OT constantly AND having to do overnight shifts. I still couldn't afford renting on my own (lived with family) and lived paycheck to paycheck.

Starting rate was around $14 (depending on department, barely above minimum wage where I'm from) and the amount of work and responsibility is INSANE. Staff retention is awful because why would people want to deal with the stress (keeping animals alive, not screwing up medications, missing signs of contagious diseases, rushing out to animals hit by cars, abuse cases, etc) for such little money when they could work in something else for less stress and more money. Increasing salaries to retain qualified people (lol) is impossible, because shelters are usually charities or operate on a government budget- fighting tooth and nail to even get basic items. People don't donate to charities to pay people, they want it to go to the animals. They don't realize the overhead it takes to run a shelter to keep the animals there.
So shelters operate with minimum or slightly above minimum wages, only attracting people who are not qualified, or are only staying for 1 or 2 months until they go back to school (takes WEEKS to train). People who stay either are stuck there for other reasons, or truly love the job (and get taken advantage of for it).