INTRODUCTION
The Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board (NMTCB) conducted a national salary survey in the summer of 2006. Surveys were mailed out to all 18,304 NMTCB certificants working in the United States and 5,690 of those surveys were returned, yielding an excellent response rate of 31%. Respondents identified themselves as staff nuclear medicine or PET technologists on 4,150 (73%) of the returned surveys. The remaining 27% were a mixture of those working in nontechnologist positions within the field (administrators, educators, private sector positions), those working in jobs outside the field of nuclear medicine, and those who did not choose to identify a current employment category. Of the staff technologist respondents who also identified their employment status, 84% were full-time employees and 13% were part-time. A full 90% of the part-time respondents were female, while 58% of the full-time respondents identified themselves as female. Three per cent identified their current status as “unemployed” (3/4 of which were female). Less than 2% of the all respondents failed to list their salary information.
DATA ANALYSIS
All returned surveys were scanned using a bubble-sheet scanner and software encoded. The output data was converted to a Microsoft Excel file, and analysis of the data was performed using Excel database functions. All entries in the database were evaluated for errors and completeness. Miscodes were considered invalid responses and eliminated from the file. Blank cell entries were maintained but individual records containing blank cells were not used in any analysis that required the missing data. As a result, any cross-tabulated statistics reported here do not use any information provided by those respondents who did not complete the appropriate items needed to make that analysis. Their record may, however, have been used in the analysis of other questions for which their responses where deemed sufficient. It should be recognized that since the records used in any one specific analysis may differ from those used in another analysis, output values for the same statistic may vary somewhat from one table to another. Salary data cross-referenced with different demographic variables may produce differing median or mean salaries for any given group of certified nuclear medicine technologists (CNMTs). Salaries 3 standard deviations above the mean (N=22) were not used in this analysis. As extreme outliers, it was felt that they were not representative of typical technologist salaries (or were in fact miscoded cells or bogus entries). Inclusion of these extreme values would have significantly skewed the overall mean values. It should also be mentioned that any conclusions drawn on this data should be made considering the appropriateness of the sample sizes.
SALARY BY JOB CLASSIFICATION
Table 1 provides the median, mean, and range of annual full-time base salaries for the various nuclear medicine-related positions, sorted in terms of highest to lowest median salaries. The overall (across all NMT positions) statistics are listed at the bottom of the chart. An hourly equivalent of the median salaries is also listed. Assuming that the industry-wide standard for NMT salary comparisons is the hospital-based, general imaging technologist, it appears that the current median market value for general nuclear medicine technology skills is approximately $59,000—just over $28 per hour. The range of salaries for people in these positions is extremely wide however ($20,984 to $115,000 per year).
Annual Base Salaries by Position
The data does suggest that NMTs are compensated somewhat better for specialty skills; approximately $3,000 per year for nuclear cardiology (Table 2), and $10,000 per year for PET positions (Table 3). Technologists working for themselves via contract or with private staffing agencies average $10,000 to $20,000 more than those technologists working as hospital staff employees.
Annual Base Cardiac Salaries by Position
Annual Base PET Salaries by Position
Average educational program directors salaries are comparable to the specialty technologist salaries, with program director salaries averaging approximately $67,000 per year (on average, about $2,000 less than PET technologists and $5,000 more than cardiac techs). Dedicated clinical instructors, however, rank at the bottom of the list, earning a median annual salary of $55,000. Clinical supervisors who are primarily administrators are earning in the neighborhood of $78,500 while chief technologists and specialty supervisors are making around $73,000 per year.
In order to get an idea of what the market value difference between subspecialties might be at entry-level, the salary data of those respondents who have graduated from an NMT program from 2003 to 2006 were grouped together and analyzed (analysts felt that using fewer years would result in a sample size that would have been too small to yield any valid conclusions). Table 4 shows that neophyte NMTs who have gone into PET-only positions average $7,000 per year more than their colleagues who hold general imaging positions (regardless of work setting). Those in cardiac-only positions are seeing salaries in between—roughly $4,000 more than those in general imaging.
Annual Base Entry-Level Salaries by Position (graduation years: 2003–2006)
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION AND GENERAL POPULATION BASE
The average annual base salaries for the hospital-based, general imaging category, sorted by population base are listed in Table 5. Not surprisingly, in most cases, those working in urban and suburban settings earn slightly more than those working in small cities and rural towns. On average, the urban/suburban salaries are about $5,000 per year higher.
Annual Hospital-Based General Imaging Salaries by Regional Population
Table 6 shows the median salaries earned by full-time hospital-based, general imaging technologists, sorted by U.S. State. The highest salaries (in the $38–39 per hour range) were reported by those working in California and the District of Columbia. The states with the lowest average salaries were West Virginia, Nebraska, and South Dakota ($22–24 per hour range). Puerto Rico reported the lowest median earnings ($15–16 per hour).
Annual Hospital-Based, General Imaging Salaries by State
Table 7 groups the average salary data in traditional geographic regions. Technologists from the Pacific region report the highest annual full-time salaries with a median value of $72,000, which is nearly $13,000 above the national mean. The North East region has the next highest at $62,950 per year. The Southern region reports the lowest median annual salary of $55, 450, which is roughly $3,500 below the national average.
Annual Hospital-Based General Imaging Salaries by U.S. Region
AVERAGE SALARIES BASED ON YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND AGE
Since most NMT graduates start off in hospital-based general imaging positions, and because this group has the largest number of respondents, analyzing this category of CNMT would most likely provide the insight into the current market value of new graduates and the relative standing of experienced technologist salaries. The data in Table 8 suggests that a new NMT program graduate might expect to be offered base salaries right around $50,000 per year (just over $24 per hour).
Annual Base Salaries by Years of Experience in Hospital-Based General Imaging
Salary compression is a term used to identify a market condition which results from upwardly adjusting the lower end of salary ranges (which typically dictates the salaries being offered to new and often inexperienced hires) without an equalizing adjustment at the high end of the range affecting the salaries of those who have been employed in the same position for a much longer period of time. Salary compression typically occurs in times of staffing shortages and affectively discounts work experience in the job market. The data shown in Table 8 would suggest that, although overall salaries for NMTs have dramatically increased over the last few years, many experienced nuclear medicine technologists may be suffering from the demoralizing effects of salary compression.
Figure 1 shows that, for the most part, technologists are being differentially compensated for their experience on the job. However, the total range of that difference, from 1 to more than 30 years of experience, only amounts to approximately $12,000 to $13,000. It appears that one might expect to earn about $9,000 to $10,000 more than entry-level after obtaining 5 years of experience, but thereafter, additional experience would not be rewarded by the market.
Salary/experience analysis shows salary increases with experience in the early years, but the range of increase is narrow and levels out after 20 years on the job.
This research shows that the median age of CNMTs across all job types is 44 years, and for those working in hospital-based general imaging, it is slightly lower, at 42 years. There were only slight group differences in age between the technologist subspecialties (43 years for cardiac techs, and 41 years for PET techs). The oldest respondents were 73 and the youngest were 21. The oldest groups were self-employed (median 53 yrs, n=34), program directors (median 51yrs, n=46), and administrators (median 50 yrs, n=16).
The age-related analysis reveals the same salary compression as the years-of-experience findings (Fig. 2). Correlations between age and experience are strongly positive (r = 0.63 for all NMT job types, r = 0.71 for hospital-based general imaging techs) and so observing the same general trend is not surprising despite the fact that the entry-level employee workforce traditionally contains a significant number of second career graduates. The correlations between age and salaries, although positive, are considerably smaller in magnitude (r = 0.28 for all NMT job types, r = 0.35 for hospital-based general imaging techs). These low correlations indicate that age is a very poor predictor of salary within the NMT salary ranges.
Age/salary analysis shows salary compression over years-of-experience.
GENDER AND ETHNICITY ANALYSIS
If it can be assumed that survey returns represent a random sample from the total number of CNMTs surveyed and that CNMTs represent a cross-section of the total number of nuclear medicine technologists working in the field, the statistics (Table 9) show that the profession is approximately 58% female and 42% male across all reported positions. These salary statistics were calculated using only full-time staff responses across all NMT job categories. Evidence shows a gender gap when comparing median salaries across all positions (approximately $6,000 in favor of the males). This difference can be partially, but not totally, explained by the preponderance of males in the higher paying positions. The gap is less, but still significant, when only looking at hospital-based general imaging salaries (Table 10) where this is just over a $2,600 difference.
Median Annual Base Salaries by Gender and Ethnicity
Annual Hospital-Based General Imaging Salaries by Gender
This analysis provides further proof that nuclear medicine professionals are not a very diverse group. Eighty five percent of all respondents identified themselves as White. The next largest group (5%) were those of Asian descent. Both African- and Latin-American CNMTs made up less than 4% of the respondent group while Native Americans were less than 1%. Because of the low numbers of individuals in each non-White category, caution should be used in interpreting any discrepancies in the salary statistics. According to this analysis, Black and Latino certificants report average salaries less than those of their White and Asian counterparts in every staff technologist job category (approximately $2,000 below the overall combined median). When looking only at the hospital-based general imaging data, Latino certificants' salaries actually move above the national overall median salaries for individuals in that position (Table 11). While the difference is less, on average, the hospital-based general imaging salaries of African-American CNMTs remain below the national mean by about $1,000. This difference might be explained by regional salary variations relative to the current geographic distribution of each group. Sixty-one percent of Black respondents live in the Southern, Mid-Atlantic, and industrial Midwestern states while only 21% live in the higher paid Pacific, North East, and Rocky Mountain regions. The greater variance across all NMT job categories suggests that there is an under-representation of Black and Latino certificants in the higher paying positions (administrators, supervisors, chief techs, program directors, PET techs, etc.).
Annual Hospital-based General Imaging Salaries by Racial/Ethnic Background
SALARIES VS. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Forty-eight percent of the respondents have bachelor's degrees, while 8% have a master's, and 1%, a doctorate. Fifty per cent of those working in hospital-based general imaging positions have a Bachelor's degree, while 4% have a master's, and 1%, a doctorate. According to the statistics shown in Table 12, the market value of a technologist with a bachelor's degree is only, on average, worth $2,000 more than a 2-year degree (when considering all NMT job types). Table 13 shows that the difference is even smaller (just over $600) when considering only hospital-based general imaging salaries. The slightly higher salaries attributed to the high school, master's, and doctorate categories prove to be more a function of the respondent's experience level than their education level.
Annual Base Salaries for all NMT Job Types by Highest Degree Obtained
Annual Base Salaries for Hospital-Based General Imaging by Highest Degree Obtained
Based on the salaries they award, employers do not appear to show any major preference for what type of NMT program from which an individual graduates. The values are so close that, when analyzing the salaries of those CNMTs who graduated in 2003 or later, the rank order of those salaries by program type differs depending on what statistic one chooses to look at (Table 14). This implies that any inference that there's a real difference between them would not be valid. For instance, although the community college median salary is higher than the 4-year college median, that order flip-flops when mean values are used. Also, although the median for the salaries of university-associated teaching hospital graduates is lower than 3 of the 4 other groups, its mean value is slightly higher because of the higher starting and ending points of its overall range. And, although both the highest median and mean salaries are seen in hospital/medical center graduates, this group also produces individuals garnering the lowest salaries of any group. The same patterns are seen when the analysis uses only data from the hospital-based general imaging data set.
2003–6 Graduates: Annual Base Salaries by Type of NMT Program
SALARIES AND CERTIFICATION IN RADIOGRAPHY
Just under 30% of the respondents currently hold dual certification in nuclear medicine technology and radiologic technology (RTR). The highest percent of dual-certified techs can be found in the private clinic, PET-only group (38%). This should not be all that surprising given the increasingly widespread use of PET/CT scanners throughout the country. The fact that a number of states will only allow certified radiographers to run the CT portion of PET/CT imaging devices is also most likely a major contributing factor to this difference. In addition, many private physicians' offices hire cross-trained individuals so that they can staff more than one modality. The private company, mobile PET-only group has the next highest percentage of dual certified individuals (34%). By contrast, 29% of those working in hospital-based general nuclear imaging positions are dual certified.
It does appear that the current market rewards nuclear medicine technologists for being cross-trained in radiologic technology. When averaged over all NMT job types and levels of experience, those CNMTs with dual certification earn only slightly more than those without x-ray certification (a median annual salary difference of $600 is seen, favoring those who are dual certified). But when only the data of recent NMT program graduates is analyzed, the difference is significant. Although only 17% of the respondents graduating from NMT schools in the years 2003–2006 were certified radiographers, the median annual salaries of that group is $2,500 more than their classmates (Table 15). However, those higher salaries are only seen in the subspecialty groups. PET-only median salaries were nearly $4,000 more for cross-trained individuals, and the cardiac-only median salaries were $2,600 more. There were no differences seen, on average, in the salaries of general nuclear imaging groups. Again, this pattern would most likely be due to the increasing use of PET/CT and SPECT/CT in these specific areas and the state licensing issues revolving around the operation of these instruments.
2003–6 Graduates: Median Annual Base Salaries by Radiography Certification
ON-CALL ANALYSIS
Most (83%) of the full-time general imaging staff respondents who replied to the on-call survey items said that they routinely pull call as part of their job-related responsibilities. Only 11% and 13% of cardiac and PET techs, respectively, pull call as part of their job duties. Eighty-five percent of the staff respondents (across all NMT positions) who replied to the on-call survey items said that they are being paid time-and-a-half for their time working on-call. All other on-call rates-of-pay were identified with much less frequency. Straight time was the next more frequently mentioned at 7%, followed by double time at 2%. Only 6% of the respondents are not getting stand-by pay when on-call. A fixed rate-per-hour was by far the most common stand-by pay rate identified by those who were compensated. The median dollar pay rate for stand-by figured to be $2.50 per hour with the most commonly reported value being $ 2 per hour. Most technologists were guaranteed a minimum number of hours once they are called in. The most commonly reported minimum hours paid was 2 (by 51% of the respondents).
CONCLUSION
These survey results have helped to identify current market salary ranges for most nuclear medicine technology-related job categories. Cross-tabulation with a number of demographic variables has provided segmental salary data that may be useful to technologists, administrators, and educators within the field. As with any statistical data, caution should be exercised when interpreting the final statistics. Small sample size in a number of the categories created here make the output mean and range values especially susceptible to the influence of atypical and/or extreme values. It is also unlikely that the respondents to this survey represent a completely random sample of the total population of nuclear medicine technologists. Factors that play a part in an individual's ability (or motivation) to complete and return or not complete a survey of this length may have had some unidentifiable influence on the results.
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