MRI Technologist Salary in Oregon 2026,
$121,920 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $121,920 a year, or $58.62 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 27.7% above the national median of $95,480. The middle half falls between $106,790 and $130,080 and the full band runs $99,110 to $131,680. Even the 10th percentile exceeds the national median for the occupation.

Salem at $121,920, marginally ahead of Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro at $120,650, with Eugene-Springfield at $112,370 behind. Only three metros are published. The near-parity between Salem and Portland, in a state where Portland dominates most other occupations, reflects how tightly this credentialed workforce is competed for across the whole state.

Yes, through the Oregon Board of Medical Imaging, which licenses medical imaging practitioners including magnetic resonance. That puts Oregon among the minority of states regulating MRI specifically. Most state imaging schemes are built around ionising radiation safety and therefore exclude magnetic resonance entirely, leaving the ARRT or ARMRIT credential to do the work alone. In Oregon there is a state licence as well.

A state licensure requirement that limits entry, a small workforce of about 510, and demand from scanner capacity across the Portland and Salem systems. Where a credential is both nationally required and state-licensed, and the workforce is small, the wage floor rises — Oregon's 10th percentile of $99,110 above the national median is what that looks like. The compressed top quartile suggests the same tightness limits variation once you are in.

Less than in most states, and the numbers say so plainly: the 75th percentile of $130,080 and the 90th of $131,680 are about sixteen hundred dollars apart. With only about 510 technologists statewide there is limited scope for the specialty and setting variation that stretches this occupation's top elsewhere. The money in Oregon MRI is in entering the profession and getting licensed rather than in climbing within it.

Because MRI uses no ionising radiation, and most state imaging regulation exists to control radiation exposure. The practical consequence is that in the majority of states an MRI technologist operates entirely outside the imaging licensure scheme, with the ARRT or ARMRIT credential as the only standard — a private credential doing public-safety work. Magnetic resonance carries its own serious hazards, principally the static magnetic field and projectile risk, which radiation-based regulation does not address. Oregon's Board of Medical Imaging covering the modality directly is therefore a substantively different regulatory posture, and it is the most plausible reason this state's wage floor sits above the national median.

With about 510 technologists the sample is small and the percentile estimates correspondingly less stable — the near-identical 75th and 90th percentiles are partly a resolution limit. The figure reports wages as paid, so evening, night and call differentials are inside it. And it must be read against Oregon's tax position, which at this income level is among the heaviest in the country once Portland-area local income taxes are included.

Getting licensed and hired first, given how few posts exist. Advanced protocol competence second — cardiac, breast and advanced neurological work is what distinguishes technologists inside a narrow band. Shift and call third, since around-the-clock scanning carries differentials that matter more here than seniority does. Lead technologist and MR safety officer roles fourth, which is what the compressed $130,080 to $131,680 top describes. Location contributes about nine thousand dollars between Salem and Eugene-Springfield.