Becoming a radiologic technologist is probably the dream of many. The job involves helping a lot of people, and you can earn a lot while working in the industry. In fact, radiologic technologist salaries stand among the upper end of the industry. Furthermore, the career path of a radiology technician is also quite well-defined, making sure that you have a clear promotion prospect.
Exactly how much does a radiology technician make? What sort of promotion paths you can expect when being a radiology technician? This article will provide you with a good answer to these questions.
What exactly does a radiology technician do?
Determining the kinds of tasks that a radiology technician often does is a good start to understand their typical pay grade. A radiology technician is a person who operates an imaging machine such as an MRI machine, an X-ray machine, or a CT scanner. However, their responsibilities often go beyond simply operating the machines when needed.
A radiology technician will often have to prepare the machines for the scanning session. Once the preparations are ready, they will have to talk with the patients and communicate the preparatory steps the patients will have to take before going through an imaging session. After the imaging session is over, the radiology technician will also have to talk to the patients about the test results and explain what they mean. The sheer number of tasks that a radiology technician has to handle means that their job is usually quite stressful, thus the salaries are often quite high to recompensate the stress.
Radiologic technologist salaries
Radiologist Technologist salaries are not easy to figure out, and they depend on a lot of factors. The annual average salary of a radiology technician in 2019 was $63,120. The highest salary for a radiology technician was more than $89,760, while the lowest was equal to or less than $41,480.
There are a lot of factors affecting radiology technician salaries. Some notable ones include:
- Education: Education is perhaps the single most important factor. A radiology technician with an associate degree will earn noticeably less than one with a master’s degree, with the difference reaching a staggering $20,000.
- Areas of expertise: Some areas of expertise pay more than others. For example, radiology technicians working in bone densitometry tend to get paid less than those working in breast sonography.
- States: The exact salaries for radiology technicians will vary from state to state. For example, the average salary of a radiology technician in West Virginia in 2019 was only $51,880, but this number in Washington was $79,430.
Radiologist Technologist salaries are quite good, and the profession comes with a very clear career path. For anyone looking to become a radiology technician, the courses at Pulse Radiology will be a great choice. Featuring an online class that does not require you to be in a brick-and-mortar class to take in lessons. For more information, don’t hesitate to give us a shout, and our experts will be happy to reach out!