Respiratory Therapy Technician

Types of Degrees Respiratory Therapy Technician Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many respiratory therapy technician/assistant graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	275
Undergraduate Certificate	45
Bachelor’s Degree	38
Basic Certificate	7

What Respiratory Therapy Technician Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, respiratory therapy technician/assistant majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to respiratory therapy technician/assistant:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant Majors

A major in respiratory therapy technician/assistant will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Respiratory Therapy Technician?

The major attracts more women than men. About 76% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of respiratory therapy technician/assistant majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	9
Hispanic or Latino	3
White	22
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	4

How Much Do Respiratory Therapy Technician Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant majors often go into careers with median salaries of $51,380. This median refers to all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Respiratory Therapy Technician

Some careers associated with respiratory therapy technician/assistant require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to respiratory therapy technician/assistant have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	0.4%
Some College Courses	0.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	65.0%
Bachelor’s Degree	29.8%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	7.1%

Online Respiratory Therapy Technician Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 33 schools offered some type of respiratory therapy technician/assistant program. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	5	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	22	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Respiratory Therapy Technician Worth It?

The median salary for a respiratory therapy technician/assistant grad is $51,380 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 29% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $229,600 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Respiratory Therapy Technician

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to respiratory therapy technician/assistant.

Major	Number of Grads
Medical/Clinical Assistant	56,466
Physical Therapy Assistant	7,420
Pharmacy Technician/Assistant	7,393
Occupational Therapist Assistant	4,848
Other Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services	3,493
Emergency Care Attendant (EMT Ambulance)	3,031
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Assistant	709
Anesthesiologist Assistant	327
Speech-Language Pathology Assistant	189
Radiologist Assistant	109
Pathology/Pathologist Assistant	97
Lactation Consultant	45

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.