Phlebotomist Salary in Mississippi 2026,
$36,290 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $36,290 a year, or $17.45 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $30,940 and $38,820 and a full range of $27,730 to $47,980. That is 19.8% below the $45,230 national median, though the state's 90th percentile clears the national median.

Jackson at $38,280, followed by Hattiesburg at $37,750, with Gulfport-Biloxi at $34,260 about four thousand dollars behind. The coast being lowest is unusual for this unit and probably reflects a higher share of outpatient draw-station work there against the hospital laboratory concentration around the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

No. Mississippi does not license phlebotomists — only a handful of states do — so there is no state examination or registry, and your scope is set by the ordering laboratory director and your employer's policy. National certification is what employers screen on: the ASCP PBT, the NHA CPT, or an AMT or NCCT equivalent, plus a current BLS card. Hospital laboratories in particular require it or require you to obtain it soon after hire.

Get certified and get into a hospital laboratory — that is what the nine-thousand-dollar jump from the 75th percentile to the 90th represents. Night and weekend differentials attach to hospital work and are excluded from the published median. Lead phlebotomist and trainer roles pay more still, and cross-training into specimen processing is the standard bridge into a medical laboratory technician programme.

The $47,980 ninetieth percentile is more than nine thousand dollars above the $38,820 seventy-fifth — a much larger step than in most states. What sits there is hospital laboratory work at its most demanding: inpatient and paediatric draws, night and weekend coverage with differentials, and lead or trainer responsibility, concentrated at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the larger systems. It clears the national median, which means the ceiling in this occupation here is better than the state gap implies.

It says the bottom three-quarters of this market is one undifferentiated pool and the top decile is a different job. From the $27,730 tenth percentile to the $38,820 seventy-fifth is about eleven thousand dollars spread across three-quarters of the workforce; from there to the $47,980 ninetieth is more than nine thousand across a single decile. That top decile is hospital laboratory work with differentials and lead responsibility, and it clears the national median. The practical implication is unusually clear: certification and a hospital post are not incremental improvements here, they are the difference between the two halves of this occupation.

Differentials and part-time work. Hospital phlebotomy earnings depend materially on night, weekend and on-call premiums that a base annual median excludes — and given how large this band's top step is, those differentials are likely a substantial part of what produces it. The outpatient side carries a part-time component blended into the annual figure. The $17.45 hourly median is the cleaner benchmark, and with about 1,200 phlebotomists statewide the metro estimates rest on small samples.

Both are defensible here, which is not true in every state in this batch. The $47,980 ninetieth percentile clears the national median, so a phlebotomist who certifies, gets into a hospital laboratory and takes night or lead responsibility can build a respectable working life. But the median of $36,290 is low and the bottom of the band is very low, so that outcome requires deliberate moves rather than time served. The standard onward routes — specimen processing then a medical laboratory technician programme — remain the highest-return option for anyone wanting more.