Key takeaways
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $74,310 for cardiovascular technologists and technicians in May 2025, with the lowest 10% earning under $39,000 and the highest 10% earning over $121,350.
- Pay varies widely by state. Among the ten large states compared below, the median runs from $53,000 in Texas to $89,570 in New York.
- About three in four of these jobs (48,190 of 62,960) are in general hospitals, where the median is $71,320. Outpatient care centers pay a $95,080 median.
- BLS wage figures leave out on-call pay, overtime, and shift differentials, so anyone who takes call earns more in total than the BLS wage shows.
- That BLS figure covers cardiovascular technologists and technicians broadly, including echocardiography and vascular roles. No reliable RCIS-specific salary figure exists because BLS does not break its wage data out by credential.
- Pay is shaped by factors beyond the credential itself — geography, call compensation, shift differential, experience, and employer type.
- Earning the RCIS credential requires roughly eight to twelve weeks of study plus a $365 exam fee; its pay effect is set institution by institution.
The honest baseline number
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $74,310 for cardiovascular technologists and technicians in May 2025. The lowest 10% earned under $39,000; the highest 10% earned over $121,350. BLS counts 62,960 people in this occupation.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) profile, May 2025, occupation 29-2031; the same median appears in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
Read that number carefully — it is broader than this job
The BLS occupation code covers cardiovascular technologists and technicians as a whole — including echocardiography and vascular technology roles — not cath lab work specifically, and not RCIS-credentialed specialists specifically. It is a reference point for the broader field, not a precise answer for an invasive cardiovascular specialist's pay.
We are stating that plainly because most pages competing for this search term do not. The move is to take the BLS figure, present it under a headline about RCIS salary, and let the reader assume the number describes credentialed cath lab professionals. It does not, and the difference matters when you are using it to evaluate an offer.
It also leaves out call pay
BLS counts straight-time pay only. Its definition of wages excludes on-call pay, overtime, shift differentials, and weekend and holiday premiums. For anyone who takes call or works nights and weekends, total pay will be higher than the BLS wage. Keep that in mind when you hold an offer up against the numbers on this page.
RCIS salary by state
Among the ten large states below, the median wage for cardiovascular technologists and technicians runs from $53,000 in Texas to $89,570 in New York (BLS, May 2025). The 90th percentile tops $100,000 in nine of the ten. California has the widest spread, from $54,720 at the 10th percentile to $157,470 at the 90th.
| State | Median | 10th pct. | 90th pct. | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | $53,000 | $36,650 | $103,120 | 6,140 |
| Florida | $77,140 | $37,490 | $106,800 | 5,640 |
| California | $78,170 | $54,720 | $157,470 | 5,570 |
| Pennsylvania | $58,090 | $40,810 | $100,250 | 3,630 |
| New York | $89,570 | $50,540 | $128,750 | 3,540 |
| Georgia | $78,070 | $40,920 | $112,120 | 2,580 |
| Ohio | $79,270 | $38,670 | $101,030 | 2,140 |
| Michigan | $80,650 | $38,990 | $96,500 | 2,070 |
| North Carolina | $55,460 | $38,650 | $101,850 | 1,990 |
| Illinois | $61,870 | $40,550 | $105,150 | 1,710 |
| United States | $74,310 | $39,000 | $121,350 | 62,960 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 state estimates for occupation 29-2031, retrieved 2026-10-05. Each state name links to that state's BLS page, which shows the jobs and median figures. The 10th and 90th percentiles are in BLS's May 2025 state data file and were retrieved through the BLS Public Data API. BLS publishes the same estimates for every state. California's job count carries a 21.2% relative standard error, so treat it as approximate.
BLS's five highest state medians are all outside the ten above: Utah ($113,510), Hawaii ($111,730), Massachusetts ($105,580), Rhode Island ($104,000) and Idaho ($100,100).
Pay by work setting
About three in four cardiovascular technologist jobs (48,190 of 62,960) are in general medical and surgical hospitals, where BLS puts the May 2025 median at $71,320. Outpatient care centers have the highest median in the table below, $95,080, but employ far fewer people: 1,410.
| Work setting | Median | 10th pct. | 90th pct. | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General medical and surgical hospitals | $71,320 | $38,190 | $115,070 | 48,190 |
| Offices of physicians | $76,850 | $47,760 | $125,950 | 8,200 |
| Outpatient care centers | $95,080 | $69,020 | $173,170 | 1,410 |
| Specialty hospitals (except psychiatric and substance abuse) | $51,240 | $43,500 | $104,800 | 1,020 |
| Medical and diagnostic laboratories | $81,200 | $58,720 | $116,830 | 970 |
| Employment services (staffing and placement agencies) | $83,290 | $38,890 | $142,160 | 830 |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025 national industry-specific estimates for occupation 29-2031, retrieved 2026-10-05. Each setting links to its BLS page, which shows the jobs and median figures. The 10th and 90th percentiles are in BLS's May 2025 industry data file and were retrieved through the BLS Public Data API. Job counts for offices of physicians (15.4%), laboratories (19.4%) and employment services (12.0%) carry larger relative standard errors.
Two notes for cath lab staff. BLS does not separate cath lab work from echo or vascular work inside any of these settings. And employment services is the closest BLS category to agency work, but it is not a travel-contract figure: BLS wages exclude meal and lodging payments, so housing and meal stipends are not counted.
What job boards report
ZipRecruiter listed an average RCIS salary of $68,096 a year on 2026-10-05, with most salaries between $45,000 (25th percentile) and $83,000 (75th percentile) and the 90th percentile at $116,500. That is a different measure from the BLS figures above, so the two are not directly comparable.
Why the numbers differ:
- Different source. ZipRecruiter says its estimates come from “employer job postings and third party data sources.” BLS surveys employers about what they pay.
- Different measure. ZipRecruiter leads with an average; the BLS headline figure is a median. Averages and medians of the same pay data rarely match.
- Different group. ZipRecruiter's figure is for jobs it matches to the title “RCIS.” BLS covers everyone in the cardiovascular technologist code, credentialed or not.
- Different date. BLS describes pay in May 2025. ZipRecruiter updates continuously, so its figure will drift from what we checked on 2026-10-05.
Job boards do not always run high. On the day we checked, ZipRecruiter's average sat below the BLS median. Use job-board numbers to see what local postings advertise, and BLS to anchor what employers report paying.
Source: ZipRecruiter, “Rcis Salary”, checked 2026-10-05. A third-party estimate, not a Cardiac Codex figure.
Why there is no reliable RCIS-specific salary number
You will find plenty of sites publishing one. Here is why we do not.
BLS does not break its wage data out by credential — there is no federal series tracking what RCIS holders earn as distinct from non-credentialed technologists in the same code. So every "RCIS salary" figure you encounter comes from somewhere other than a primary source, and in practice that means job boards and salary sites built on job postings or self-reported submissions.
That data has structural problems. Self-reported pay is self-selected — people with above-average pay are more motivated to report it, which pushes the average up — posted pay is what an employer advertises rather than what it pays, and both routinely blend travel and staff positions, which are not comparable. Travel contract rates can run far above staff pay, but they carry no benefits continuity, no institutional tenure, and no guarantee of the next assignment. Averaging them into a "typical salary" produces a number that describes nobody.
So: we publish the BLS median because it is sourced, and we decline to publish a credential-specific national figure because no primary source supports one. We quote one job board's number above, labeled for what it is, but we do not present it as the RCIS salary. If that makes this page less satisfying than a competitor promising a precise RCIS number, that is the trade we are making. A confident wrong number is worse than an honest gap when you are deciding whether to accept an offer.
What actually moves the number
The spread in that BLS range — $39,000 to $121,350 for the same occupation code — is not random. It is driven by a small number of identifiable factors:
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Geography | Among the ten states compared above, the median runs from $53,000 in Texas to $89,570 in New York. The same role can also differ substantially between metro areas and rural markets. |
| Call compensation | Usually structured as a standby rate plus premium callback pay. In a high-volume STEMI center this can be a meaningful share of annual earnings — and BLS wage figures exclude it, so it never shows up in the baseline number above. |
| Shift differential | Nights, weekends, and holidays carry premiums that vary by institution. BLS wage figures exclude these too. |
| Experience and clinical ladder | Most systems have defined steps. Movement between them is usually tied to tenure plus documented competencies — and often to credentialing. |
| Licensure base | RN and technologist roles frequently sit on different pay scales entirely, which is one reason the same lab can show a wide internal range. |
| Employer type | Academic centers, community hospitals, and outpatient/office-based labs compensate differently and offer different call burdens. BLS puts the median at $71,320 in general hospitals and $95,080 in outpatient care centers. |
| Credential | Commonly tied to a differential or a ladder step — but the amount is set institution by institution, and there is no published national figure for it. |
What I have actually seen move an offer
I am not going to publish numbers from my own institution, and you should be skeptical of any manager who publishes theirs. What I can tell you is which conversations change outcomes, because I sit on the other side of them.
Most people evaluate the wrong number. Candidates anchor hard on base hourly rate and treat everything else as noise. Then they take a job with a lower differential structure and a heavier call burden and are surprised a year later that they are working more for less. Call structure, differentials, and how the clinical ladder actually functions are not fine print — for many people in this field they add up to a larger difference than the base rate gap they were negotiating over.
Ask what the ladder requires, not just what it pays. Nearly every system has a clinical ladder. The published pay steps are the easy part to find. What is worth asking is what advancement actually requires — how many people moved up last year, what the competency documentation involves, and whether the credential is a requirement or a tiebreaker. A ladder nobody climbs is a brochure.
Ask whether they will pay for the exam. Many institutions offer certification reimbursement, exam-fee coverage, or continuing-education funds, and a surprising number of people never ask. It is not an awkward question. Someone asking me how the organization invests in developing its staff is asking a good question, and I would rather answer it in an interview than lose them in two years to a place that does.
On the credential and pay specifically: at most places the RCIS is tied to something real — a differential, a ladder step, eligibility for senior or charge roles. What I would not tell you is that earning it produces a specific raise, because that is entirely a function of your institution's compensation structure. The right move is to ask your own manager what it is worth here, before you sit for it. That is a normal conversation and any decent manager will answer it directly.
The last thing I would say is about the top of that BLS range. The people at the high end are generally not there because they collected credentials. They are there because of geography, years, call load, and in many cases because they moved into charge, educator, or leadership work. The credential is frequently a prerequisite on that path — but it is a gate you pass through, not the thing that pays you.
How the RCIS factors into pay conversations
Institutions treat the credential differently, but the common patterns are:
- A certification differential — a defined add-on to base pay for holding a relevant credential.
- A clinical ladder requirement — the credential is required to advance past a certain step, so the pay effect arrives indirectly through promotion.
- An eligibility gate for senior roles — charge, lead, educator, and specialty roles often name it.
- No direct pay effect at all — some employers encourage it without attaching money, in which case its value to you is mobility rather than immediate income.
All four are common. Which one applies to you is a question with a definite answer that your manager or HR can give you, and it is worth getting that answer before you invest eight to twelve weeks of study and a $365 exam fee.
If you are earlier in the process: how to become a cath lab tech covers the routes in, and the eligibility pathways guide covers when you can actually sit for the exam.
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What is the average cath lab tech salary?
BLS reports a $74,310 median annual wage for cardiovascular technologists and technicians in May 2025, ranging from under $39,000 at the 10th percentile to over $121,350 at the 90th. The code covers the broader field, not cath lab roles specifically, and it leaves out call pay, overtime and shift differentials.
Is there an RCIS-specific salary figure?
Not from a primary source. BLS does not break wage data out by credential. Job boards publish “RCIS” estimates built from job postings and other data; ZipRecruiter showed a $68,096 average on 2026-10-05. We quote it as a comparison, not as the RCIS salary.
Which states pay cardiovascular technologists the most?
In BLS's May 2025 data, the five highest state medians are Utah ($113,510), Hawaii ($111,730), Massachusetts ($105,580), Rhode Island ($104,000) and Idaho ($100,100). Among the ten large states on this page, New York has the highest median at $89,570 and Texas the lowest at $53,000.
Does RCIS certification increase your salary?
Often, through a certification differential or a clinical ladder step — but the amount is set institution by institution and no national figure exists. Ask your employer what it is worth under their structure.
Why do salary websites show different numbers?
They measure something else. Job boards build estimates from job postings and third-party data, often lead with an average rather than a median, and match on job titles. BLS surveys employers about straight-time pay for the whole occupation. The gap can go either way: on 2026-10-05, ZipRecruiter's RCIS average was below the BLS median.
Do cath lab techs get paid for call?
Most positions include call pay — typically a standby rate plus premium callback pay. Structures vary widely and call can be a substantial share of total compensation, so evaluate it as part of any offer. BLS wage figures exclude on-call pay.
Do travel cath lab positions pay more?
Contract rates are often higher than staff pay, but they carry no benefits continuity, no tenure, and no guaranteed next assignment. They are not directly comparable to a staff salary and should not be averaged with one.
Is the field growing?
BLS projects 4% growth from 2025 to 2035 — about as fast as average — with about 3,400 openings a year, many of them from replacing people who leave the occupation.
Keep reading
- How to become a cath lab tech — the three routes in
- Which RCIS eligibility pathway are you on?
- The RCIS exam: complete 2026 guide
- RCIS exam pass rate — CCI's official 75% figure
- The RCES exam guide — the EP lab credential