Occupation / job
Psychiatric Technicians
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
At $45,130, Psychiatric Technicians lands just under the $50,020 national midpoint — $4,890 apart, inside the range a single promotion or a move between states closes.
National employment is 156,960. At that scale hiring is continuous, the market rate is well established, and your leverage comes from being credibly willing to go somewhere else.
These roles suit people who want to be genuinely expert at one clinical technique, applied all day, to people who need it done properly.
No verified preparation time is on file for Psychiatric Technicians. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
$11,730 separates the bottom quarter at $38,430 from the top quarter at $50,160, a ratio of 1.3x. In a band that tight, moving up inside Psychiatric Technicians pays less than moving out of it would.
A quarter of the field earns under $38,430 — $11,590 below the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is the number to plan on for a first year, not the midpoint.
Avoid it if shift work in a clinical setting would not be sustainable for you over a full career.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 156,960 people employed as Psychiatric Technicians; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
A 1.3x ratio from $38,430 to $50,160 makes $45,130 a dependable planning number. Dependable is the whole offer here — there is not much room above it.
The middle half of this field earns between $38,430 and $50,160. That is $11,730 of range, with $45,130 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
Between $38,430 and $50,160 — the two ends of the middle half — sits $45,130. Moving from the midpoint to the upper quarter is worth $5,030; the whole climb from the lower quarter is $11,730.
The fall from $45,130 to the $38,430 bottom quarter is $6,700; the climb to the $50,160 top quarter is $5,030. Slightly more of the range lies below the midpoint than above it, so the downside is the bigger movement here.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Psychiatric Technicians is $21.69 an hour. The quarters sit at $18.47 and $24.11, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Psychiatric Technicians. The self-employed are excluded, so $45,130 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
The hourly number on this page is $45,130 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Psychiatric Technicians, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else