Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologist Salary (2026), outlook and how to become one

Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists earn a median of $62,930 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), 23% above the $50,980 US median across all occupations. That works out at $30.26/hr. The middle half earn between $47,650 and $81,450. The top 10% earn $100,990 or more.

The median hourly wage for medical and clinical laboratory technologists is $30.26 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). On a full-year basis the $62,930 annual median works out to about $5,240 a month before tax.

BLS does not publish a starting salary. The nearest measure is the low end of the pay range: the lowest-paid 10% of medical and clinical laboratory technologists earn less than $38,910 a year and the bottom quarter less than $47,650 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). New workers often start near that end, but where a particular job starts depends on the employer, the state and the credentials you bring, so read these as the bottom of the range rather than a guaranteed entry wage.

A minority do. $100,000 sits between the 75th percentile ($81,450) and the 90th ($100,990), so roughly 10% to 25% of medical and clinical laboratory technologists earn more than that (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No state's median reaches $100,000; the highest is New York at $97,280.

The highest state medians for Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists are New York ($97,280), Oregon ($83,010), New Hampshire ($81,020) (BLS OEWS, May 2025).

BLS does not split medical and clinical laboratory technologists' pay by specialty or employer, but its range shows how far the top end runs: the highest-paid 10% earn more than $100,990, against a median of $62,930 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Location moves pay the most in the published data: the best-paying states are New York ($97,280), Oregon ($83,010), New Hampshire ($81,020). BLS also counts 3 specialty careers inside this occupation (cellular therapy technologist, clinical embryologist, pathologists' assistant), which share its federal pay figures.

Yes. BLS reports a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists, and O*NET rates the preparation needed as considerable preparation. In O*NET's survey of people already doing the job, 52.1% hold bachelor's degree.

BLS does not publish a fixed length; it depends on the route. What it does publish: the typical way in for medical and clinical laboratory technologists is a bachelor's degree. O*NET classes the work as needing considerable preparation.

It is stable rather than fast-growing: employment is projected to change 2.7% over 2025–2035, about the same as the 3.5% projected across all occupations (BLS EP, 2025–2035). BLS still projects about 20,800 openings a year, mostly from workers retiring or moving to other work.

Clinical laboratory technologists (also known as medical laboratory scientists) and clinical laboratory technicians (also known as medical laboratory technicians) perform medical laboratory tests for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. A core O*NET task: analyze laboratory findings to check the accuracy of the results. Employers most often ask for Medical software, Office suite software, Presentation software.

Yes, for most. In O*NET's survey of people in the job, 20% of medical and clinical laboratory technologists usually work more than 40 hours a week, 50% work exactly 40 and 29% work fewer. 90% say their schedule is regular and 11% irregular. Source: O*NET 31.0 Database, Work Context.

O*NET scores Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists highest on the Investigative, Realistic and Conventional interest areas, so the work mixes investigating, analysing and solving problems with ideas and data with hands-on, practical work with tools, machines or the outdoors. On NueCareer's MBTI-to-interest mapping that lines up most closely with ISTJ personalities. Personality is a fit signal, not a gate. The free NueCareer quiz scores your own profile against all 1,731 careers in the bank.

Women make up 67.2% of medical and clinical laboratory technologists, against 47.1% of all employed people: more women than in the workforce as a whole. 22.0% are 55 or older, close to the 23.2% across all jobs. The median worker is 39.9 years old (all workers: 42.1). Source: BLS Current Population Survey, 2025 annual averages, for the Census group "Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians".