The Average Salary for Medical Lab Technicians
You can become a medical laboratory technician with as little as two years of education, but the salary you can expect in this field is substantially higher than the salaries available to most others with only an associate’s degree. Of course, your exact salary will depend on a number of factor, but on average, medical laboratory technicians not only have a lot of job security, but they also have the chance to make a lot of money.
Average Base Salary as a Medical Laboratory Technician
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary you can expect as a medical laboratory technician is $56,870 annually or $27.34 per hour. Most medical laboratory technicians make between $47,130 and $66,370 annually (or an hourly wage of between $22.66 and $31.91), and if you’re in the top ten percent of all medical laboratory technicians, you can expect to earn an average of over $75,000 per year.
Salary by Location
One of the factors that affects your salary significantly is location. In the United States, can expect to earn the most money in California, Nevada, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and Alaska. In all of these states, the average for a medical laboratory technician is over $63,000 annually. Of course, you can typically expect to earn more if you live in a city in most cases, and in the US, the top-paying cities for medical laboratory technicians are all found in California. To earn a higher salary consider moving to San Jose, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Salinas, Santa Rosa, or Vallejos. You can also find fairly high-paying jobs in more rural areas in Northern California, as well as in Colorado and Alaska if you want to live somewhere other than California but still desire a high salary.
Salary by Employer
Who hires you affects your salary just as much as where you’re hired. In the medical laboratory technician field, top employers are pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing companies, dentist offices, the federal government, and specialty hospitals. In each of these areas, you can expect an average salary of over $60,000 annually. Consulting firms are also good options for medical laboratory technicians, and the most jobs are found at surgical hospitals, where you can expect an average salary of $57,300 annually.