What does the salary picture look like this year? It may be another year plagued with tough economic challenges, but it also is one filled with opportunites. Increasingly, the career of medical laboratory technologist is being touted as one of the best occupational alternatives for qualified workers of any age. There are many possibilities to grow within your chosen profession, in terms of career advancement, financial security, and professional satisfaction. That may be the most important message to take away from the responses to Medical Laboratory Observer's annual salary survey.
Laboratorians: some basics
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, opportunities for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians are forecast to increase during the decade between 2008 and 2018 by 14%, adding 45,500 jobs. Openings also may be expected due to retirement. The MLO survey respondents indicate that 39% now are in the 56-to-65-year-old age group (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Age distribution
Additional education can open the door for a move up into a laboratory management role. Our respondents reported earnings averaging $48,438 for laboratorians with a high school diploma; $50,114 for those with an Associate's degree; $69,433 for those with a Bachelor's degree; and $84,618 for those holding a post-graduate degree.
The breakdown by gender at each education level is depicted in Figure 2. The gender gap increases with age, experience, and education, as attested by survey responses. Annual salary figures favor females among high school graduates: $50,883 to $41,250. Women who have earned an Associate's degree average a salary of $50,000 compared to $50,500 for men, however, and the gap widens at higher education levels. Men with Bachelor's degrees average $72,587 annually, compared to $68,440 for women with Bachelor's degrees. The gap is even greater for laboratorians with post-graduate degrees: men average $91,000 in annual salary, while women average $82,434. MLO would be curious to hear from readers what they view as the reasons behind this trend.
Figure 2. Education, gender, average salary
For those with high school diplomas the starting point is better in the lab than in many other occupations. In a news release (USDL-12-0092) on compensation dated January 24, 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that full-time workers age 25 and older with a high school diploma receive a median salary of $641 weekly, or $33,332 per year. Laboratorians with high school degrees report average annual wages of $48,438. That translates into an average earning potential of 45% more in the lab.
Many laboratorians have stayed with the same lab for more than 20 years. Is it better to shop around? As Figure 3 indicates, the salary gap between those who have changed jobs and those who haven't narrows as the total number of years increases to 20 or more.
Figure 3. Salary and years with current employer
By performing your job satisfactorily, you can expect to benefit. Our survey indicates that 64.7% of respondents received a raise last year, and 44.4% expect an average raise of 2.73% this year. Bonuses were given to 28.5%; and benefits are noteworthy. Respondents report the following benefits: 99.3% have access to healthcare insurance, 95.2%; have the opportunity to invest in 401K or pension plans; 93.3% have the option of dental insurance, 89.9% have life insurance; 82.5% are eligible for disability. Forty-two percent receive overtime pay, 16.1% can take advantage of flextime, and 9.1% have access to childcare. These benefits put your job more than a cut above many other occupations.
Earnings by geographical region
Consistent with results of past surveys, the highest average salaries are found in the Pacific and Northeast regions ($82,109 and $74,231, respectively), with the Southeast at $68,268, the Mountain region $68,130, and the Central states at $66,933 (Figure 4). It is difficult to generalize about reasons for these disparities, as local factors in specific areas tend to affect the average.
Figure 4. Average salary by geographical region
Certifications and continuing education
Professional development, important in almost all fields, is perhaps especially crucial to healthcare professionals. For laboratorians, this is often measured in educational certifications. The overwhelming majority of certifications reported by our MLO respondents were for Medical Technologist (MT) with 76.2%; the next highest was for Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) at 17.5%, Some 19.2% of respondents were certified as Clinical Laboratory Scientists, and 12.4% as Medical Laboratory Scientists (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Types of certifications
Among the numerous professional organizations that certify laboratorians, respondents to the MLO salary survey indicated that 60% were certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), 37.4% by ASCP Board of Certification, and 13.2% by the National Credentialing Agency for Laboratory Personnel. Also, clinical laboratorians are taking an average of 4.17 tests each year to earn continuing education credits.
Personnel shortages and automation
The effects of medical personnel shortages, outsourcing, and automation in the lab on efficiency and cost were tallied through our survey. We asked what impact the current medical personnel shortage had on lab efficiency and the responses were varied: 36.8% said “low,” 32.1% said “moderate,” 14.1% said “large,” and 17% indicated that in their experience it had no impact. We also asked respondents if their lab outsourced work, and 87.8% said “no,” while 12.2% said “yes.” Automation was employed by more than half the labs, with 53.4% saying their labs used automated procedures/products, and 46.6% reporting that their labs did not. As noted by our respondents, efficient operation is always essential, especially for larger labs performing more than 1 million tests each year. And that comprises some 30.5% of responding labs. In fact, a majority of responding labs (53%) performed more than 500,000 tests a year (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Number of tests run annually
A typical clinical laboratorian?
According to MLO's survey respondents, a representative laboratory professional is a female (77%), 56 to 65 years old, working somewhere in Texas (10.6%). She has a supervisory position (43.6%) as a lab manager/administrator/supervisor, in a hospital lab (74.1%), is salaried (57.1%), and generally works an eight-hour shift (71.4%). Her salary is $74,970.
Our representative clinical lab pro works for an organization with one to 10 employees (22.5%). She is a graduate of a college or university (63.1%) and is certified in her field (65.9%). She participates in a continuing education program with more than 10 CE classes yearly (39.3%). She has worked in the clinical laboratory field for more than 20 years (79.4%), with the same employer (42.7%).
Of course, any profile of a “typical” professional probably matches very few actual people. Such profiles do, however, provide a useful human face for what otherwise might seem to be, if we may invent a new collective noun, “an anonymity of numbers.”
Measuring up
So, to answer the $64,000 question: am I satisfied, secure, and earning a competitive salary? The survey says: more than 93% feel secure, and more than 90% are satisfied with their jobs.
When we review all the elements that go into the overall view, a career as a medical laboratory professional is one of the best. That's according to “The 50 Best Careers,” an article published last year in U.S. News & World Report, based on projections for job growth, salary data, and factors such as job satisfaction. And according to our MLO survey respondents.
