Healthcare USA

Pay for healthcare occupations in the United States, from registered nurses and surgical technologists to nurse practitioners, nurse anaesthetists and the imaging specialisms. All figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, which surveys employers rather than relying on self-reported salaries, and each page shows the median, the percentile range and a breakdown by state. American healthcare is where the relationship between training and pay breaks down most clearly. Radiation therapists, dental hygienists, MRI technologists and ultrasound technicians all earn well above the national median for all occupations on a two-year associate degree, because each role requires a certification that keeps the pool of qualified people small. At the other end, nurse anaesthetists are among the best-paid workers in the country outside medicine itself. Geography matters as much as specialism: the spread between the highest and lowest-paying states within a single occupation is often wider than the gap between two different jobs.