The truth is that any pay scale will be different depending on where you live. If you live in a big city where the cost of living is high, salaries will be higher in general. But if you are in a part of the country where the cost of living is low, salaries will be lower. That is true for any and all jobs, and the exact number for your salary may not be as important as the relation of your salary to the local cost of living. The x-ray tech pay scale is no different.
In some states or regions, x-ray tech pay scales start as low as $20,000 per year. That is for recent graduates who have been in the job market for less than one year. However, it is more likely that you will start with an annual salary that is between $25,000 and $30,000 per year.
The type of office or hospital you work in may also make a big difference. For large private hospitals with a huge workforce and set pay grades, you may start out at a relatively low salary, but be guaranteed certain increases over time. In a small private practice, especially a specialist’s office, you may start at a higher salary and raises will be based more on performance and time with the office than on a simple annual calculation.
No matter what salary you start at, the increases in salary should be steady based on your experience. Many x-ray techs find that after one or two years, their annual salary has already increased by $1,000 to $3,000. The longer you work in one place, the higher your salary will get and the bigger the increases will be. Within ten years, you may find your salary has risen by $5,000 to $10,000.
Just like with any job where your skills are based on specific training and experience, changing jobs will also help you to increase your salary more rapidly. You may find that the x-ray tech pay scale at the hospital where you work crawls upward each year, but that there are jobs out there for x-ray technicians with experience that start as a much higher salary. When a doctor’s office or hospital wants to hire someone with 5 years of experience, you may be able to take a bigger jump in salary than if you stay with a single job for many years.