According to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, there were approximately 2,670 respiratory therapists employed in the state as of 2014. These allied healthcare professionals earn an average salary of $67,860 per year, or $32.60 per hour.
Other findings from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development include:
- Respiratory therapists in New Jersey in the 25th percentile are earning $29.90 per hour, or $62,180 per year.
- Respiratory therapists in the 50th percentile are earning $32.80 per hour, or $68,210 per year.
- Respiratory therapists in the 75th percentile are earning $35.70 per hour, or $74,210 per year.
Respiratory therapists are part of New Jersey’s booming healthcare industry, which as of 2012 contributed more than $30 billion to the State’s real gross domestic product (GDP), or about 7 percent of all state output. Other highlights of New Jersey’s healthcare industry include:
- From 1990 to 2012, the healthcare sector in New Jersey added 180,600 new jobs.
- It is expected that between 2010 and 2020, more than 61,700 healthcare jobs will be added to the economy, resulting in an annual increase of 1.3 percent.
- Healthcare employers paid more than $22.7 billion in total wages in 2011, or about 12.3 percent of all wages paid in New Jersey.
- The annual, average salary in the healthcare sector in New Jersey was $52,320 in 2012, up from $48,580 in 2007, an increase of 1.5 percent per year.
Respiratory therapists are part of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations occupational category. As of 2012, this occupational category showed some of the highest salaries in the state. The average salary was $84,800 during this time. Healthcare workers possessing a post-secondary certificate through an associate’s degree earned an average salary of $67,350 and accounted for 62.5 percent of all healthcare workers in New Jersey in 2012.
The following Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) table highlights salary expectations for respiratory therapists in cities throughout New Jersey as of May 2013.