About PayByState

What this site is

PayByState publishes detailed salary data for 14 technician- and assistant-level allied health roles, broken out by U.S. state and adjusted for cost of living. The data is sourced directly from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. The editorial commentary on each page is written from a career-decision-making perspective — what the BLS data implies for someone choosing or weighing a healthcare path, including the parts that career-marketing sites tend to leave out.

Why we focus on technicians and assistants

Most healthcare salary sites lead with registered nurses, physicians, and physician assistants. Those roles are well-covered. The tier below — surgical technologists, dental hygienists, sonographers, respiratory therapists, medical assistants, and a few others — is underweighted in mainstream coverage despite representing the majority of healthcare hiring. These are also the roles where state-by-state pay variation is largest, cost-of-living impact is most material, and credential decisions have the highest financial stakes per year of school.

How we make money

We run advertising (Google AdSense) and we earn affiliate commissions from selected accredited program directories. Our affiliate links are clearly labeled. We don't accept payment from individual schools or employers, and we don't adjust editorial content based on what affiliates pay. The "Find programs near you" CTAs throughout the site are sponsored — when you click and enroll, we earn a commission. The data and analysis on the page is the same regardless of whether you click the affiliate link.

The honest version: affiliate commissions support the site, and we'd rather you see one ad-supported page than fifteen rage-bait listicles. If you find the data here useful, clicking the program directories when you're genuinely program-shopping is what keeps this site able to publish without paywalls.

How the editorial works

Every profession page is written from scratch with a distinct angle and voice — not a templated layout filled with the same phrasing. Some of the things you'll find here that you won't find on most healthcare career sites:

• Honest financial assessments when the math doesn't work (e.g., DPT debt vs PT salary)
• The non-obvious reason behind state-pay variations (union density, staffing rules, employer mix — not just cost of living)
• Discussion of automation pressure (medical billing, general radiography) versus structural insulation (hygienist, surgical tech, RT)
• The ergonomic ceiling that many healthcare careers face by year 10–15
• Cost-of-living-adjusted real pay rankings, which often differ meaningfully from nominal pay rankings

What this site is not

We don't publish reviews of specific schools, training programs, or employers. We don't recommend specific affiliates by name in editorial copy. We don't promise placement or guaranteed outcomes. We don't have a way to verify what your local market specifically pays — we report state-level BLS data and adjust for cost of living, which is the best widely-comparable benchmark available. Your specific employer, role, and shift will likely vary from these benchmarks; treat the data as a baseline, not a quote.

Who runs the site

PayByState is published by an independent operator. We're not affiliated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Labor, any state licensing body, or any school or healthcare employer. The site has no investors, no editorial board, and no commercial relationships beyond the labeled affiliate program directories and standard ad networks (Google AdSense).

How to reach us

Corrections, feedback, or partnership inquiries: contact page. We genuinely want corrections — if you find a data point that contradicts the BLS source, or a state-by-state assertion that's wrong for your local market, please let us know.