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Pay · 29-1126

Respiratory therapists earn $82,280 a year at the midpoint

Starting pay is close to the middle here: the 25th percentile is $74,520 against a median of $82,280, so the first years are not a long climb.

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$82,280median a year · United States
$39.56an hour $87,300average 139,790people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$74,52025th $82,280median $98,73075th
$63,66010th percentile $118,05090th percentile
$74,520a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$111,950best-paying state · District of Columbia
$63,270lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+36%top state against the national median
  • 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.
  • 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.”

A short climbThe 25th percentile, $74,520, is within 9% of the median.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $111,950 in District of Columbia and $63,270 in Mississippi — a gap of $48,680 a year.

Respiratory therapist earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Examples

Resumes made for this kind of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Related work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Respiratory therapists$82,280
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons$352,220+$269,940 Nurse anesthetists$236,590+$154,310 Pharmacists$140,910+$58,630 Nurse practitioners$132,300+$50,020 Physical therapists$102,760+$20,480 Occupational therapists$100,330+$18,050

Respiratory therapist wages in each state

The 46 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.77 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
District of Columbia $111,950 $77,240 $77,240 — $127,400 430
New York $107,810 $81,270 $81,270 — $131,500 7,010
California $104,820 $77,010 $77,010 — $145,510 18,650
Massachusetts $102,170 $80,330 $80,330 — $123,930 2,220
Washington $101,130 $76,080 $76,080 — $127,520 1,860
New Jersey $100,810 $78,000 $78,000 — $123,370 3,350
Oregon $100,560 $81,490 $81,490 — $120,060 1,340
Minnesota $98,710 $79,060 $79,060 — $110,050 1,250
New Hampshire $95,940 $80,490 $80,490 — $109,000 360
Hawaii $94,210 $80,130 $80,130 — $102,780 510
Delaware $91,080 $79,210 $79,210 — $109,890 500
Maryland $88,960 $69,550 $69,550 — $106,430 1,800
Colorado $86,220 $66,560 $66,560 — $109,070 2,110
Nevada $85,480 $65,150 $65,150 — $118,710 1,270
Connecticut $85,230 $72,410 $72,410 — $121,620 1,370
Wisconsin $84,210 $70,520 $70,520 — $100,320 1,940
Illinois $84,090 $64,480 $64,480 — $100,100 4,880
Georgia $83,700 $65,050 $65,050 — $112,320 5,150
Virginia $82,910 $65,540 $65,540 — $106,470 3,340
Maine $82,470 $61,060 $61,060 — $98,470 520
Nebraska $81,590 $64,100 $64,100 — $96,180 840
Montana $81,190 $60,800 $60,800 — $92,890 390
Florida $81,160 $64,240 $64,240 — $100,310 8,820
Utah $80,650 $61,860 $61,860 — $101,340 1,170
North Carolina $80,090 $63,990 $63,990 — $99,520 4,630
Ohio $79,920 $65,580 $65,580 — $97,030 6,640
Michigan $79,850 $64,770 $64,770 — $90,210 4,520
Arizona $79,780 $64,780 $64,780 — $99,180 3,500
Indiana $79,730 $62,730 $62,730 — $94,980 3,170
Texas $79,540 $61,310 $61,310 — $99,690 12,130
Oklahoma $78,800 $64,380 $64,380 — $95,350 2,000
Pennsylvania $78,490 $62,440 $62,440 — $95,520 6,530
Idaho $78,460 $63,540 $63,540 — $95,290 820
Missouri $78,390 $60,950 $60,950 — $95,730 3,030
South Carolina $77,740 $63,700 $63,700 — $90,670 1,960
Kansas $76,970 $60,470 $60,470 — $94,600 1,450
Louisiana $75,240 $61,520 $61,520 — $91,200 2,520
Iowa $74,760 $62,860 $62,860 — $86,510 910
Arkansas $73,870 $59,550 $59,550 — $93,480 1,400
Kentucky $72,750 $58,330 $58,330 — $92,540 2,530
Tennessee $72,140 $57,860 $57,860 — $88,060 3,440
New Mexico $68,870 $61,990 $61,990 — $91,220 840
West Virginia $68,670 $52,940 $52,940 — $94,280 1,140
South Dakota $68,240 $48,530 $48,530 — $88,830 430
Alabama $66,150 $50,250 $50,250 — $81,030 2,350
Mississippi $63,270 $50,180 $50,180 — $80,460 1,670

A resume for respiratory therapists

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

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  • Set up and operated devices, such as mechanical ventilators, therapeutic gas administration apparatus, environmental control systems, or aerosol generators, following specified parameters of treatment.
  • Monitored patient's physiological responses to therapy, such as vital signs, arterial blood gases, or blood chemistry changes, and consult with physician if adverse reactions occur.
  • Read prescription, measure arterial blood gases, and review patient information to assess patient condition.

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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.

No. 184 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 77% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 182 Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians $82,890
  2. 183 Logisticians $82,320
  3. 184 Respiratory therapists $82,280
  4. 185 Avionics Technicians $82,280
  5. 186 Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health $82,220

Respiratory therapist pay rate, 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.

$82,285a year

Questions people often ask

What is a respiratory therapist’s yearly income?

A respiratory therapist makes a median of $82,280 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $74,520 and $98,730.

What is a respiratory therapist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $39.56 an hour; the average is $87,300 a year.

What is the starting pay for a respiratory therapist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $74,520 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $63,660.

Which state pays respiratory therapists the most?

District of Columbia, with a median of $111,950 a year.

How many people work as respiratory therapists?

About 139,790 in the United States — number 184 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Jobs that pay about the same

Median pay within $610 of what respiratory therapists earn — $82,280 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations