Hospital staff watch Intensive Care Unit Nurse Merlin Pambuan, 66, walk out of the hospital where she spent eight months with COVID-19, at Dignity Health – St. Mary Medical Center, in Long Beach, California, on December 21, 2020.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Jobs in healthcare, medical research, and hospitals have been especially important amid the pandemic.
The pay of hospital workers vary; we ranked several occupations based on their annual pay.
Here are the average salaries of select hospital positions, based on BLS data from May 2021.
33. Janitors and cleaners earn an average of $33,010 a year, and there are 80,330 employed in hospitals.
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32. Orderlies earn an average of $33,580 a year, and there are 38,470 employed in hospitals.
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31. Nursing assistants earn an average of $35,180 a year, and there are 421,720 employed in hospitals.
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30. Institution and cafeteria cooks earn an average of $36,410 a year, and there are 36,090 employed in hospitals.
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29. Phlebotomists earn an average of $37,480 a year, and there are 48,460 employed in hospitals.
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28. Emergency medical technicians earn an average of $37,980 a year, and there are 31,500 employed in hospitals.
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27. Security guards earn an average of $41,520 a year, and there are 46,900 employed in hospitals.
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26. Pharmacy technicians earn an average of $43,300 a year, and there are 70,800 employed in hospitals.
A technician stocks the shelves of the pharmacy at White House Clinic in Berea, Kentucky, U.S., February 7, 2018.
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25. Paramedics earn an average of $49,210 a year, and there are 17,580 employed in hospitals.
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24. Medical records specialists earn an average of $50,820 a year, and there are 52,940 employed in hospitals.
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23. Health technologists and technicians (all other) earn an average of $51,960 a year, and there are 55,250 employed in hospitals.
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This is a catch-all category for health technologists and technicians.
22. Surgical technologists earn an average of $53,420 a year, and there are 78,980 employed in hospitals.
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21. Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians earn an average of $59,960 a year, and there are 149,800 employed in hospitals.
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20. Dietitians and nutritionists earn an average of $66,650 a year, and there are 21,440 employed in hospitals.
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19. Radiologic technologists and technicians earn an average of $67,480 a year, and there are 129,060 employed in hospitals.
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18. Healthcare social workers earn an average of $70,870 a year, and there are 48,070 employed in hospitals.
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17. Public relations specialists earn an average of $71,150 a year, and there are 4,600 employed in hospitals.
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16. Nuclear medicine technologists earn an average of $83,820 a year, and there are 12,720 employed in hospitals.
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15. Registered nurses earn an average of $84,910 a year, and there are 1,858,580 employed in hospitals.
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14. Physical therapists earn an average of $96,300 a year, and there are 66,850 employed in hospitals.
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13. Physician assistants earn an average of $122,740 a year, and there are 31,950 employed in hospitals.
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12. Nurse practitioners earn an average of $123,270 a year, and there are 56,820 employed in hospitals.
AP Photo/Dan Gill
11. Medical dosimetrists earn an average of $124,870 a year, and there are 1,510 employed in hospitals.
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10. Medical and health services managers earn an average of $128,870 a year, and there are 143,520 employed in hospitals.
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9. Pharmacists earn an average of $132,990 a year, and there are 86,740 employed in hospitals.
A pharmacist works at an internal pharmacy run by Walgreens at a Cisco health clinic at Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, U.S., March 22, 2018
Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage
8. Financial managers earn an average of $150,980 a year, and there are 10,380 employed in hospitals.
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7. General internal medicine physicians earn an average of $184,660 a year, and there are 18,290 employed in hospitals.
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6. Family medicine physicians earn an average of $209,020 a year, and there are 19,700 employed in hospitals.
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5. Nurse anesthetists earn an average of $212,570 a year, and there are 14,440 employed in hospitals.
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4. Chief executives earn an average of $243,840 a year, and there wasn’t an employment estimate for hospitals available.
Richard J. Murphy, CEO of South Nassau Communities Hospital.
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3. Surgeons (all other) earn an average of $255,620 a year, and there are 7,750 employed in hospitals.
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This is a catch-all category that includes different kinds of surgeons.
2. Obstetricians and gynecologists earn an average of $269,360 a year, and there are 4,360 employed in hospitals.
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1. Anesthesiologists earn an average of $269,650 a year, and there are 4,520 employed in hospitals.
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Method and data source
The coronavirus pandemic has had an effect on almost everyone’s daily life in some way. Hospital staff in particular have confronted the virus every day and have put their own health at risk to help test or treat those infected by coronavirus.
Hospitals also have long been a big employer. BLS figures indicate that hospitals employ around 5.14 million Americans, according to the most recent data in April.
People who work in hospitals perform a wide range of jobs, including nurses who take care of patients, lab technologists who run complicated tests to detect disease, and radiology technicians who manage the scans that can help diagnose patients.
Those skilled occupations could explain why hospital workers tend to make more than the average healthcare worker. The average hospital worker made $38.50 an hour and worked just over 37 hours a week on average, according to preliminary government data from March 2022.
There are about 6,090 hospitals across the US today, according to industry group the American Hospital Association, ranging from nonprofit community ones to for-profit hospitals and hospitals run by state and local governments or the federal government.
Insider decided to look at how much workers in hospitals make based on the latest industry-specific data from May 2021. To do this, we took a look at salaries in 33 selected hospitals jobs with various job duties. This includes various types of physicians as well as other hospital positions, such as security guards and cooks.
