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How to Become a Clinical Laboratory Technologist

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Home » Specialties » Clinical Laboratory Scientist

Clinical Lab Technologist At a Glance

  • What you’ll do: As a clinical lab technologist, you’ll collect samples and perform tests ordered by doctors and surgeons to analyze body fluids, tissue, and other substances. You may also prepare specimens and perform detailed manual and automated tests as requested.
  • Where you’ll work: Medical and surgical hospitals, medical diagnostic laboratories, physicians’ offices, outpatient care centers
  • Degree you’ll need: 4-year bachelor’s degree
  • Median annual salary: $57,800

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Job Environment

Medical technologists act as supervisors for medical technicians, who perform many of the same duties in a physician’s office or lab. On the job, you’ll collect and analyze body fluids, tissue, and other substances to determine normal or abnormal findings. You’ll operate sophisticated equipment and instruments to identify the results.

Both technicians and technologists perform tests and procedures that physicians or other healthcare personnel order. However, technologists perform more complex tests and laboratory procedures than technicians do. In these roles, you’ll work side by side in doctor’s offices, clinics, diagnostic labs and research environments.

Medical laboratory technicians often wear eye shields, gloves and other gear to prevent the spread of infection and to protect themselves from solutions and reagents used in testing.

Median Annual Salary

Take a look at median annual salaries for clinical lab techs by state, courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2021 Occupational Employment Statistics.

Clinical Laboratory Technologists and Technicians

National data

Median Salary: $57,800

Projected job growth: 6.6%

10th Percentile: $30,280

25th Percentile: $37,990

75th Percentile: $74,530

90th Percentile: $79,340

Projected job growth: 6.6%

State data

State Median Salary Bottom 10% Top 10%
Alabama $46,880 $28,700 $64,920
Alaska $60,770 $36,650 $98,490
Arizona $47,020 $29,470 $78,040
Arkansas $46,420 $29,010 $68,430
California $61,650 $37,740 $101,220
Colorado $60,670 $37,150 $79,870
Connecticut $74,980 $37,320 $98,990
Delaware $61,960 $37,150 $77,460
District of Columbia $61,650 $47,130 $98,490
Florida $48,450 $29,120 $77,110
Georgia $47,820 $29,480 $77,350
Hawaii $60,850 $37,990 $79,340
Idaho $44,390 $23,330 $76,810
Illinois $57,280 $33,140 $78,340
Indiana $47,300 $29,460 $74,660
Iowa $48,450 $35,670 $75,000
Kansas $48,000 $29,500 $76,600
Kentucky $59,110 $29,760 $78,460
Louisiana $49,470 $29,180 $76,620
Maine $59,540 $37,620 $75,840
Maryland $59,500 $31,990 $80,020
Massachusetts $59,640 $37,210 $96,890
Michigan $50,190 $29,670 $77,600
Minnesota $59,320 $37,290 $78,640
Mississippi $45,790 $28,810 $73,580
Missouri $47,040 $29,120 $75,000
Montana $60,050 $29,860 $78,940
Nebraska $48,450 $29,870 $76,290
Nevada $59,380 $29,700 $94,410
New Hampshire $74,640 $38,810 $94,420
New Jersey $61,830 $37,640 $94,880
New Mexico $46,980 $29,210 $75,410
New York $76,190 $45,000 $100,270
North Carolina $48,000 $35,030 $76,920
North Dakota $58,860 $37,130 $77,520
Ohio $53,870 $36,580 $78,430
Oklahoma $46,980 $29,360 $76,010
Oregon $74,510 $42,310 $99,770
Pennsylvania $58,550 $35,260 $77,320
Rhode Island $75,000 $47,210 $94,870
South Carolina $47,860 $29,570 $74,780
South Dakota $47,380 $29,470 $76,480
Tennessee $49,520 $29,860 $78,940
Texas $48,450 $29,790 $77,210
Utah $47,020 $29,820 $78,940
Vermont $59,500 $37,150 $79,340
Virginia $50,280 $30,970 $78,940
Washington $61,000 $37,200 $98,210
West Virginia $48,700 $29,470 $76,220
Wisconsin $59,110 $36,170 $76,600
Wyoming $48,660 $29,480 $78,320

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2021 median salary; projected job growth through 2031. Actual salaries may vary depending on location, level of education, years of experience, work environment, and other factors. Salaries may differ even more for those who are self-employed or work part time.

Career Advancement

If you enjoy working as a medical or clinical lab technician, and would like to advance and gain more responsibility and autonomy in the field, you can move into a technologist position. There, you can specialize in a variety of areas such as:

  • Blood bank technology (immunohematology)
  • Clinical chemistry technology
  • Cytotechnology
  • Immunology
  • Microbiology
  • Molecular biology
  • Phlebotomy
  • Histotechnology

Clinical laboratory technologists, also called clinical laboratory scientists, must pass a national certification examination given by one of these professional agencies: