Occupation · SOC 29-1126
Respiratory Therapists Salary
Respiratory Therapists earn a median of $82,280 a year in the United States, which is $39.56 an hour. The mean is $87,300, and 139,790 people are employed in the occupation.
Also searched as Respiratory TherapistRespiratory TherapistRRT
The full pay range
A single average hides most of what a reader wants to know. BLS publishes the whole distribution, so here it is: each row is the annual salary at that point in the pay range for respiratory therapists.
Annual salary by percentile May 2025
| Percentile | Annual salary | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $63,660 | entry level, or a lower-paying region |
| 25th percentile | $74,520 | early career |
| Median (50th) | $82,280 | half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $98,730 | experienced |
| 90th percentile | $118,050 | top of the field |
Common questions
How much do respiratory therapists make?
The median salary for respiratory therapists in the United States is $82,280 a year, which is $39.56 an hour. The mean is $87,300. Median and mean differ because a small number of very high earners pull the mean upward, so the median is the better answer to what the job typically pays.
What is the highest salary for a respiratory therapist?
The highest-paid 10 percent of respiratory therapists earn $118,050 or more. That is the highest figure the survey publishes for this occupation; there is no reported maximum, and individual earnings above it are not broken out.
How many people work as respiratory therapists in the US?
139,790, as of the May 2025 release. That covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed, who are not surveyed.
How much do respiratory therapists make a month?
About $6,857 a month before tax, which is the published annual median of $82,280 divided by twelve. BLS publishes annual and hourly wages rather than monthly, so treat this as arithmetic on the annual figure, not a separate measurement.
Do respiratory therapists make $100,000 a year?
Some do. The best-paid 10 percent earn $118,050 or more, while the typical figure is $82,280. Six figures in this occupation is the top of the field, not the middle.
How much does a Respiratory Therapist make?
Respiratory Therapist is a common name for respiratory therapists, classified by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics under SOC code 29-1126. The median salary is $82,280 a year, or $39.56 an hour. The same job is also called Respiratory Therapist, RRT.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 release, for SOC code 29-1126. Nothing here is interpolated or averaged by this site. The survey covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed. See how to read these figures for what that means in practice.