Respiratory Therapist Salaries by State (BLS May 2025 Data)

A respiratory therapist in New York earns, on average, about $42,000 a year more than one in Mississippi for the same credential. This guide ranks every state and the District of Columbia by what respiratory therapists actually earn, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, the newest state-level wage data the government publishes. Every figure is a BLS estimate for the respiratory therapist occupation; nothing here is self-reported or blended from salary sites.

National estimates for respiratory therapists (May 2025)

The BLS counts 139,790 respiratory therapists employed in the United States. The mean annual wage is $87,300 ($41.97 an hour) and the median is $82,280 ($39.56 an hour). Half of respiratory therapists earn between $74,520 and $98,730; the top 10% earn more than $118,050.

Which states pay respiratory therapists the most?

New York pays respiratory therapists the most, with a mean annual wage of $110,200: $22,900 above the national mean. California and the District of Columbia are within $2,200 of it, and every state in the top ten averages more than $93,000 a year. The ten highest-paying states and D.C.:

1. New York: $110,200 a year ($52.98 an hour)
2. California: $109,440 a year ($52.62 an hour)
3. District of Columbia: $108,020 a year ($51.93 an hour)
4. Massachusetts: $100,580 a year ($48.36 an hour)
5. New Jersey: $99,760 a year ($47.96 an hour)
6. Washington: $99,740 a year ($47.95 an hour)
7. Oregon: $98,160 a year ($47.19 an hour)
8. Minnesota: $96,890 a year ($46.58 an hour)
9. Alaska: $96,290 a year ($46.29 an hour)
10. New Hampshire: $93,700 a year ($45.05 an hour)

Which states pay respiratory therapists the least?

At the other end, Mississippi has the lowest mean respiratory therapist wage at $68,120, which is below the national 25th percentile. The five lowest-paying states:

1. Mississippi: $68,120 a year ($32.75 an hour)
2. Alabama: $68,480 a year ($32.92 an hour)
3. South Dakota: $68,910 a year ($33.13 an hour)
4. West Virginia: $71,970 a year ($34.60 an hour)
5. Tennessee: $72,300 a year ($34.76 an hour)

These are means, not offers. A registered respiratory therapist with ten years in a critical care unit in Alabama can out-earn a new graduate in Oregon, and the cost of housing in the highest-paying states eats into the gap (more on that below).

Respiratory therapist salaries in all 50 states (and D.C.)

Ranked by mean annual wage. "Median" is the annual wage at the midpoint of the state's respiratory therapists, and "RTs employed" is the BLS employment estimate for the state. Each state's name links to our guide to healthcare jobs and pay in that state.

In most states the median sits at or above the mean, which means pay is clustered near the top of the range rather than pulled up by a few high earners; the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon all have medians above $100,000. The opposite holds in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Nevada and Georgia, where the mean is $4,000 to $7,000 above the median, and in Mississippi, where a typical respiratory therapist earns about $4,900 less than the state mean.

Where the respiratory therapist jobs are

Pay and headcount rarely line up. California and New York are the only states that are both top-five payers and top-six employers; Texas and Florida, the second- and third-largest employers, sit in the bottom half of the pay table. The six states with the most respiratory therapists:

• California: 18,650 respiratory therapists, mean $109,440
• Texas: 12,130 respiratory therapists, mean $81,010
• Florida: 8,820 respiratory therapists, mean $82,400
• New York: 7,010 respiratory therapists, mean $110,200
• Ohio: 6,640 respiratory therapists, mean $81,240
• Pennsylvania: 6,530 respiratory therapists, mean $78,180

Those six states employ about 59,800 respiratory therapists, more than two in five of the country's total. Browse the openings on our board for respiratory therapist jobs in California, Texas, Florida and New York, or every respiratory therapist job we list.

Top-paying industries for respiratory therapists

Setting matters as much as geography. National mean annual wages for respiratory therapists by industry, May 2025:

Respiratory therapy is a hospital profession: general medical and surgical hospitals employ about three in four respiratory therapists and pay slightly above the national mean, with specialty hospitals the next-largest setting. Outpatient care centers, which include sleep labs and pulmonary rehabilitation clinics, pay far more but hire fewer than 2% of the workforce. Skilled nursing facilities, physician offices and home health agencies, the usual routes out of shift work, pay $4,000 to $12,000 below the hospital mean.

Job outlook for respiratory therapists

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 142,000 respiratory therapist jobs in 2025 and projects employment to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding 12,100 jobs. Including replacements for therapists who change occupations or retire, the BLS projects about 8,600 openings a year over the decade. The typical entry-level education is an associate's degree in respiratory therapy, though some employers prefer a bachelor's degree, and respiratory therapists must be licensed in every state except Alaska. Certification comes in two levels, Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) and Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT), and some employers require the RRT at hire or within a set time on the job. By setting, the BLS reports that 80% of respiratory therapists work in hospitals, 4% in skilled nursing facilities and 3% in physician offices.

What the numbers don't tell you

• Cost of living. BLS wages are gross pay, not adjusted for housing or taxes. New York, California, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington lead the pay table and are also among the most expensive places to live; Minnesota, Georgia and Colorado sit in the top 20 with cheaper housing. Compare what is left after rent or a mortgage, not the headline figure.
• Setting and shift. The industry table above is national; the same spread between an outpatient sleep lab and a community hospital exists inside every state, and night, weekend and on-call differentials are inside these averages. A night-shift respiratory therapist in a mid-ranked state can land well above the state mean.
• Experience and credentials. The 10th-to-90th percentile spread at the national level is $63,660 to $118,050. Where you fall in that range depends more on years in the role, the RRT credential, specialty credentials such as neonatal and pediatric or adult critical care, and shift than on the state line.
• Licensure. A respiratory therapist license is issued state by state, and there is no multistate compact for the profession. Before you take an offer across a state line, check the state's licensing board for its endorsement requirements and processing time, and build that into your start date.
• The wider field. Respiratory therapy is one of the faster-growing healthcare occupations in the BLS projections, and the same state-by-state pattern holds across clinical roles: see our guides to physical therapist salary by state and the highest-paying states for nurses.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national, state and industry tables, Respiratory Therapists (29-1126), read 10 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Query System, Respiratory Therapists (29-1126), May 2025 state and industry estimates, read 10 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Respiratory Therapists, 2025 pay and 2025-35 projections, read 10 October 2026.