Patient Care Technician Salaries: What Is the Normal Pay Rate for a Patient Care Tech?
The pay rate that is associated with a particular career field is always important in deciding if it is the right career field for you and this is no different with the career of a patient care technician. As a patient care tech you will have many different roles in a medical office and the roles that define you will also be what shapes the salary that you will command.
Remember in the role of a patient care tech you are not providing the same vital roles as that of a nurse or doctor so make sure you realize this will not be a career that you get rich with. That being said, you can make a sustainable living in this profession.
A tech will usually start out at around $11 per hour, or around $22,000 per year with no experience within the company or the field of a patient care tech. As usual, your pay is determined by the amount of experience and expertise you bring to a field so the less experience you have the less you will be paid.
This is not the end of the road for you as the more time and experience that you garner the more money you will be able to earn, but in the beginning you can expect this to be about the pay rate that you are offered as an inexperienced patient care tech.
The more time you are on the job you will continue to rise in pay and you will usually top out at around $14 per hour and somewhere around $30,000 per year. Some patient care techs may make more but usually this is around where the job starts to top out.
If you want to make more in the medical field at this point you may want to focus on becoming a nurse or other, more prominent medical assistant. Your demand will determine your pay and as patient care technicians are demanded more the more that you will make.
As is the case with other careers there is also the caveat that these numbers could fluctuate from one are of the country to another as demand or cost of living increases. The best way to handle this is consult with the colleges that offer these certifications in your area or consult the people looking to hire and see what the salary range is.
Most businesses will be more than happy to report this information as it helps them to weed out those that will not be happy with the arrangements.