Pay · 51-9081
Dental Laboratory Technicians earn $49,610 a year at the midpoint
From about $36,660 at the low end to $76,940 at the top, with $49,610 in the middle — the 2025 survey, published as reported.
National figures for dental laboratory technicians, 51-9081, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Dental laboratory technician earnings, from starting pay to the top 10%
Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.
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Number 532 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 32% of the occupations in the survey.
- 530 Patternmakers, Wood $49,630
- 531 Agricultural Technicians $49,630
- 532 Dental Laboratory Technicians $49,610
- 533 Maintenance and Repair Workers, General $49,590
- 534 Information and Record Clerks, All Other $49,500
Dental laboratory technician pay rate, from hourly to yearly
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
A resume for dental laboratory technicians
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Read prescriptions or specifications and examined models or impressions to determine the design of dental products to be constructed.
- Tested appliances for conformance to specifications and accuracy of occlusion, using articulators and micrometers.
- Fabricated, altered, or repaired dental devices, such as dentures, crowns, bridges, inlays, or appliances for straightening teeth.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Examples
Resumes written for this kind of job.
Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.
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Dental laboratory technician wages by state
The 43 states where the most people do this work, of 46 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.96 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $72,800 | $47,450 | $47,450 — $82,820 | 440 |
| North Dakota | $67,580 | $54,990 | $54,990 — $77,360 | 60 |
| Maine | $64,020 | $43,680 | $43,680 — $111,940 | 120 |
| Colorado | $61,220 | $47,690 | $47,690 — $99,630 | 410 |
| New Hampshire | $60,610 | $40,960 | $40,960 — $87,360 | 120 |
| Florida | $59,790 | $36,750 | $36,750 — $78,010 | 2,330 |
| Nebraska | $58,590 | $40,410 | $40,410 — $69,990 | 190 |
| Kansas | $56,790 | $42,800 | $42,800 — $84,700 | 570 |
| Washington | $56,400 | $39,970 | $39,970 — $78,340 | 670 |
| Minnesota | $56,090 | $39,350 | $39,350 — $76,650 | 390 |
| New York | $52,460 | $38,580 | $38,580 — $76,010 | 1,890 |
| Virginia | $51,900 | $36,100 | $36,100 — $89,490 | 1,050 |
| Illinois | $51,380 | $40,120 | $40,120 — $67,150 | 2,030 |
| Arkansas | $49,960 | $36,410 | $36,410 — $66,470 | 840 |
| Indiana | $49,920 | $35,360 | $35,360 — $67,090 | 680 |
| North Carolina | $49,700 | $36,580 | $36,580 — $75,660 | 990 |
| Michigan | $49,570 | $37,560 | $37,560 — $77,420 | 1,180 |
| Georgia | $49,310 | $34,790 | $34,790 — $80,310 | 1,460 |
| Pennsylvania | $49,280 | $31,680 | $31,680 — $84,570 | 930 |
| Tennessee | $48,880 | $36,520 | $36,520 — $79,020 | 610 |
| Oregon | $48,800 | $35,300 | $35,300 — $71,860 | 570 |
| Oklahoma | $48,670 | $30,470 | $30,470 — $77,420 | 250 |
| Ohio | $48,480 | $36,420 | $36,420 — $76,780 | 1,160 |
| South Dakota | $48,370 | $39,420 | $39,420 — $65,990 | 120 |
| Nevada | $48,190 | $35,310 | $35,310 — $82,240 | 200 |
| Arizona | $47,930 | $36,530 | $36,530 — $77,840 | 950 |
| Maryland | $47,850 | $36,960 | $36,960 — $77,250 | 590 |
| Mississippi | $47,770 | $26,520 | $26,520 — $70,760 | 140 |
| Montana | $47,560 | $39,420 | $39,420 — $67,650 | 110 |
| Iowa | $47,520 | $35,750 | $35,750 — $67,450 | 380 |
| California | $47,410 | $36,660 | $36,660 — $74,200 | 4,480 |
| Idaho | $47,380 | $36,280 | $36,280 — $101,230 | 370 |
| New Jersey | $47,270 | $37,340 | $37,340 — $99,240 | 780 |
| Wisconsin | $47,170 | $36,840 | $36,840 — $68,680 | 800 |
| Utah | $47,110 | $37,210 | $37,210 — $79,170 | 1,300 |
| Missouri | $46,870 | $38,650 | $38,650 — $78,430 | 740 |
| Kentucky | $46,770 | $21,120 | $21,120 — $68,660 | 420 |
| Texas | $46,330 | $31,160 | $31,160 — $73,400 | 1,770 |
| Alabama | $45,760 | $32,350 | $32,350 — $61,250 | 1,050 |
| Hawaii | $45,300 | $37,220 | $37,220 — $65,460 | 120 |
| New Mexico | $45,300 | $36,100 | $36,100 — $64,970 | 130 |
| Louisiana | $38,490 | $23,850 | $23,850 — $71,320 | 330 |
| South Carolina | $37,170 | $29,380 | $29,380 — $61,980 | 260 |
Questions people often ask
What is a dental laboratory technician’s yearly income?
A dental laboratory technician makes a median of $49,610 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $40,420 and $62,070.
What is a dental laboratory technician’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $23.85 an hour; the average is $54,290 a year.
What is the starting pay for a dental laboratory technician?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $40,420 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $36,660.
Which state pays dental laboratory technicians the most?
Massachusetts, with a median of $72,800 a year.
How many people work as dental laboratory technicians?
About 34,410 in the United States — number 532 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Work that pays roughly the same
Median pay within $20 of what dental laboratory technicians earn — $49,610 a year — but not always the same spread.
- $20 more Patternmakers, Wood $49,630median a year 10th percentile: $37,600 90th percentile: $83,780
- $20 more Agricultural Technicians $49,630median a year 10th percentile: $35,980 90th percentile: $76,480
- $20 less Maintenance and Repair Workers, General $49,590median a year 10th percentile: $35,350 90th percentile: $77,180