The healthcare profession offers a great many areas of expertise. One that comes to mind in the area of surgery, when doctors, nurses, and surgical tech take their place in the surgical suite to provide the finest care for the patients that are there to undergo surgery. Although there is no one in the suite that makes more money than the surgeon or the anesthesiologist, a surgical tech salary is nothing to sneeze at. Considering that it only takes a few months to become certified as a surgical tech, the salary is great compensation for the work done.
The average salary for a surgical technician is between $30,000 and $55,000 per year, and along with that, there is plenty of room for growth in this industry. While the larger surgical technologist salary looks very good to anyone that is interested in entering this unique healthcare profession, there is no way that the beginning tech will be able to command the top salary right up front. $32,700 is the median pay range for those who have been working in this area for less than one year.
When just getting started in this branch of the industry, this should be considered an excellent way to launch a budding career. The newbie to the surgery suite can look forward to increasing that earnings potential within four years to somewhere around $34,200. As with other types of work places, yearly raises will automatically add to the salary, but it should be expected that the longer one works in the industry and the more experience they gain, the more opportunity for advancement through the ranks will also add to that salary.
The ambitious individual is sure to choose a career path that will take them to the top level within the surgical technician's area of expertise. That path will necessarily begin as a surgical technologist and then advance to surgical first assistant. After that, the tech will be able to specialize in a certain type of surgery such as the field of heart or lung surgery, and then at some point they may decide to pursue an administrative career that is within a non-medical organization.
It usually surprises people when they find out that a surgical tech salary is normally highest when the individual that is not working in a medical position that does not require a degree in order to work their skills. Experience has always been the best qualifications and that is often reflected in the amount of money that is earned for the position. There are many surgical technicians who are not working on a salaried basis. Instead, they are working at an hourly rate.Techmaster60
The median ranges for surgical technologists today sits between $13.23 to $26.11. When calculated over a full year's time, that averages out to between $27.510 and $54,300. That would appear to bring the hourly wage up to just about the same amount as a tech that is earning a salary, and who knows, when figuring the hours worked, the hourly wage may be the better deal.
The old saying about location being key to better earnings holds true when it comes to a surgical tech salary. As it works out, the tech that is working in a medical facility can expect to earn an average salary of $39,500 while one that is working in college or university medical settings will usually earn around $34,100. So it does matter where the tech works.