How much do ekg technicians make in 2026?
BLS does not publish an EKG-technician-only wage. The closest series is SOC 29-2031, Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians, which has a national median of $74,310 a year ($35.73 an hour) per OEWS May 2025 — but that series also contains echocardiographers and catheterisation-laboratory technologists, who earn far more than a monitor technician. The realistic EKG and telemetry technician range is the lower part of the distribution, between the $39,000 10th percentile and the $47,890 25th percentile, while the $98,110 P75 and $121,350 P90 describe credentialed echo and invasive cardiovascular technologists. Treating the headline median as an EKG technician wage would be misleading, and the route to it runs through echo or cath-lab credentialing. Employment across the series is projected to grow 3% through 2034 with roughly 3,800 openings a year. → Full ekg technician career guide, career path, credentials & placement →
Note: $74,310 blends every experience level and every setting in this occupation. For pay by level alone, see Pay by Level below.
- EKG Technicians earn a national median $74,310/yr ($35.73/hr) (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-2031); the P10 to P90 range is $39,000 to $121,350.
- The published series covers echocardiographers and cath-lab technologists as well as EKG technicians, so the $74,310 median is well above what a monitor technician actually earns.
- Read the $39,000 to $47,890 band as the EKG and telemetry technician reality, and the $98,110 P75 as credentialed echocardiography and invasive cardiovascular work.
- The practical career move is credentialing into echocardiography or the catheterisation laboratory, which is what carries a technician into the upper half of the same series.
US EKG Technician Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Pay by Level · BLS OEWS May 2025
How much do ekg technicians earn at each level?
BLS OEWS publishes one blended wage for the whole occupation and does not break pay out by credential or practice level. The levels below distribute the published percentile range across the credential tiers this role actually hires at.
Level medians are aligned to the BLS OEWS May 2025 percentile distribution for SOC 29-2031; GlobalCybers does not yet publish a verified placement sample for this role, so no verified median is shown.
Methodology & Sources
How the numbers on this page are built
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-2031, United States national estimate. Public, methodologically rigorous, but sampled on a rolling 3-year basis and published ~10 months after collection — so it reflects wages that are already 1–2 years old by the time you read them.
Level and certification medians: distributed across the published BLS percentile range for this SOC code (P10 through P90) according to the credential tiers this occupation actually hires at. They are modeled reference points, not separately surveyed wages.
State and metro figures: modeled — the BLS national median multiplied by the GlobalCybers state wage index, and for metros by the published metro index for that state. They are estimates of local pay, not BLS state or metropolitan-area observations, and are labelled as modeled in the tables below.
No verified placement sample:GlobalCybers does not yet publish a placement median for this role, so no "verified" figure appears anywhere on this page.
Pay by Career Level
How much does an ekg technician earn at each career stage?
Because this SOC code spans monitor technicians through invasive cardiovascular technologists, the stages below map the credential route through the series rather than seniority in one job. Medians are anchored to the BLS distribution for SOC 29-2031.
By State
Which states pay ekg technicians the most in 2026?
These are modeled state estimates — the BLS national median for the whole cardiovascular series scaled by the GlobalCybers state wage index — not BLS state observations. Because the series median sits well above monitor-technician pay, treat these state rows as the series-wide level, not as an EKG technician offer.
6 of 51 state guides shown, ranked by median. Bar is relative to California ($85,460), the highest-paying state shown. See all role salary guides →
ekg technician pay by state — all 11 state guides
By Metro
Which cities pay ekg technicians the most?
Modeled metro estimates: the series national median scaled by the state wage index and then by the published metro index. They describe the wider cardiovascular series and are not BLS metropolitan-area observations.
BLS OEWS MSA estimates, May 2025. Nominal pay — weigh each metro against its cost of living before relocating.
Certification Impact
Which certifications raise an ekg technician’s pay the most?
Median annual pay before and after each credential, based on GlobalCybers placement data cross-referenced with BLS. License upgrades move the needle most; stackable certs add on top.
Impacts are not additive, the licensing rows share the same career ladder. Browse all 167 certifications →
Trade Comparison
How does ekg technician pay compare to related roles?
BLS OEWS national median across the closest trades. EKG Technicians sit mid-pack on median but carry one of the widest P10–P90 spreads, licensing and specialization drive the upside.
BLS OEWS May 2025. Verify ekg technician wages on BLS.gov →
Take-Home Pay
What does an ekg technician actually take home after taxes?
The medians above are gross base wage.
Estimates use 2026 federal brackets, standard deduction, and 7.65% FICA. Actual take-home varies with filing status, deductions, and local tax.
FAQ
EKG Technician Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
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