About Critical Values

Critical Values is the go-to resource for the entire laboratory team, providing insight and information on the latest research, information, and issues within pathology and laboratory medicine. The print and online magazine invites submissions on topics including, but not limited to, advocacy, education, technology, global health, workforce, workplace best practices, and leadership.

Critical Values Staff

Molly Strzelecki  Editor 

Susan Montgomery  Contributing Editor

Martin Tyminski  Creative Director  

Jennifer Brinson  Art Direction and Design  

Salaries and well-being  improving since the pandemic, continued focus  on lab visibility is imperative

The salary survey results from the ASCP 2023 wage survey show that there have been significant increases in salaries of laboratory professionals before adjusting for inflation. However, due to high inflation rates of previous years up to 2023, the salary increases have not kept up for most of the occupational titles surveyed. After adjusting for inflation,¹ results from this survey show that only staff-level PA, MB, PBT, CG, and MLT wages have increased (Table 1). The hourly wage for leads is also up in 2023 for CGs and HTs only (Table 2). Only MLS supervisors’ hourly wages are up in 2023 (Table 3). Average hourly wage for all respondents regardless of occupational level is shown in Table 4.

Geographically, laboratory professionals from urban areas earn just slightly more compared to the overall average hourly wage. Laboratory professionals who work in facilities located in rural areas earn the least compared to overall hourly wages across the country as well as urban areas. Table 5 shows the average hourly wage by region and occupational title. The differences between wages of laboratory professionals working as they accumulate more years of experience in the field show slight increases. In addition, HTs, HTLs, and MLTs show consistent increases in pay rates for longer length of time in the laboratory. Wages by time in current occupational title are significantly higher in 2023 compared to the wages reported in 2021 (Wage survey report 2021, Table 20).²

Most survey respondents (95.1 percent) indicated they were certified, while 4.9 percent indicated they were not certified (Table 6). Furthermore, all respondents were asked if they plan to be certified in 2024, 52.6 percent of respondents said that they do, while 47.4 percent said they are not planning to be certified.

This survey also examined the differences in age and gender by occupational title. The average age for the laboratory workforce has not changed significantly when compared to previous wage survey results. CTs show the oldest workforce while PAs and MBs continue to have a younger workforce than other laboratory professions surveyed, Figure 1. Compared to the 2021 wage survey results, current data show that men are older than women in many of the occupational titles surveyed except for HTLs, MLSs, and MLTs, Figure 2. The average wage of laboratory professionals based on age continues to increase for every age range. This survey also analyzed wages by gender and found that males earn more than females for most occupational titles.

Lastly, this survey asked the respondents to provide comments after the completion of the survey. We received a total of 2,628 comments and found that 58.8 percent addressed being underpaid . For many, the inflation and cost of living have outpaced the increase in their wages, while for others, wages continue to remain low with respect to the occupational role, title, education, and years in the field. One respondent commented that, “Even though my hourly wage has gone up significantly, I feel I was underpaid to start with, so the increase was eaten up by inflation and I am in the same place financially as before.”

Hiring, retention, staffing challenges and retirement show continued increase in rate of respondents, 13.2 percent (compared to 12.3 percent in 2021) indicating that there are currently low retention rates and employers continue to experience difficulties finding qualified applicants. In addition, respondents reported lack of appreciation and recognition from hospital management and other providers, and lack of visibility of the profession among the public, 11.9 percent. Finally, 8.5 percent of respondents asked for greater representation through advocacy.

Raising the visibility of the laboratory 

Since the publication of the ASCP’s Blueprint for Action, the laboratory community and ASCP have implemented a number of recommendations from the document.³ The newly established Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce (MPHLW) Coalition—a collaboration of more than 28 national organizations—works together to promote visibility and build a robust and diverse medical laboratory workforce. Since the formation of the coalition, there have been more than 300 interested entities (organizations and individuals) who reached out to participate.⁴ A group of MPHLW Coalition members came together to urge laboratory administrators, C-suite executives, educators, and the laboratory community to register for a webinar, “Promoting the Profession by Aligning Educational Program Titles to the Medical Laboratory Science Career.” The session delved into discussions around standardized nomenclature for programs teaching medical laboratory science at the bachelor’s degree level. The webinar also described the current landscape of educational programs and degree titles while presenting the case for alignment of accurate and unified medical laboratory science nomenclature.⁵ 

ASCP’s Workforce Steering Committee is working tirelessly to promote visibility for the laboratory medicine and pathology professions.⁶ To date, we have spoken to more than 200 school counselors and advisors to promote the laboratory profession and partner with them via the ASCP Career Ambassadors.

ASCP also developed its Grow Your Own Initiative to highlight some organizations that are taking action to create a more diverse and robust pipeline of needed employees by “growing their own” laboratory teams—developing training programs within their own organizations and in partnership with outside entities to fill the immediate needs they are seeing in their own communities.⁵ 

As part of ASCP’s support for a more inclusive and diverse laboratory workforce, the ASCP Foundation is awarding scholarships to those pursuing higher education to become a medical laboratory professional.⁷ The Dr. Alvin Ring Empowerment Scholarship for Laboratory Professionals looks for students from underrepresented populations or underserved areas within the U.S. who seek to serve underserved communities. This scholarship is made possible in part by Dr. Alvin Ring’s donation to the ASCP Foundation and a Cooperative Agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Laboratory Systems and will be offered annually, with the next announcement coming in March 2025.

To read the full report on the 2023 Wage Survey, visit ­academic.oup.com/ajcp.

References

1. Current US Inflation Rates: 2000-2024 | US Inflation Calculator. US inflation calculator |. Published 2024. Accessed June 26, 2024. www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates
2. Garcia E, Kundu I, Fong K. The American Society for Clinical Pathology’s 2021 wage survey of medical laboratories in the United States. Am J Clin Pathol. 2022;158(6):702-722. doi.org/10.1093/ajcp/aqac116
3. Garcia E, Kundu I, Kelly M. Understanding the Challenges to Meeting Current and Future Needs: Blueprint for Action. Accessed November 11, 2024. ascpcontentwebsite.blob.core.windows.net/content/docs/default-source/istp/clinicallaboratoryworkforce_blueprint.pdf?sfvrsn=302c113f_1
4. Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce Coalition. Accessed June 27, 2024. www.mphlcoalition.org.
5. Grow your own Laboratory team. Grow Your Own Laboratory Team. Accessed November 11, 2024. www.ascp.org/news/workforce-initiatives/grow-your-own-laboratory-team
6. Laboratory Workforce Steering Committee. Ascp.org. Published 2019. Accessed November 11, 2024. www.ascp.org/membership-resources/get-involved/councils-committees/laboratory-workforce-steering-committee
7. Ring Empowerment Scholarship. Ascp.org. Published 2019. Accessed November 11, 2024. www.ascp.org/membership-resources/scholarships-grants/ring-empowerment-scholarship