Phlebotomist Salary in Washington 2026,
$48,880 Median | BLS Data by City

The published figure is $48,880 a year, or $23.50 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 31-9097, with a band from $39,410 at the 10th percentile to $64,080 at the 90th. That is 8.1% above the national median of $45,230. The middle half of Washington phlebotomists earn between $45,820 and $58,370, and the upper part of that range is hospital and mobile work rather than outpatient draw stations.

Yes, though not under that name. The Washington State Department of Health issues a Medical Assistant-Phlebotomist credential, which is the legal authority to perform venipuncture in a clinical setting here. Washington treats phlebotomy as a scope within its medical assistant credentialling structure rather than as a standalone profession, so there is no separate phlebotomy licence to apply for.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, at $49,900, but only just: Bellingham follows at $48,300, then Yakima $47,970, Kennewick-Richland $47,640 and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater $47,280. The whole table spans about $2,600, because a high statewide wage floor sets the base almost everywhere and leaves little room for metro premiums in this occupation.

Complete a phlebotomy or medical assistant training programme acceptable to the Department of Health, then apply for the Medical Assistant-Phlebotomist credential. Most Washington hospital laboratories additionally require national certification through a body such as ASCP or NHA. The sensible next step, given how the state structures its credentials, is to build toward the broader medical assistant categories rather than to stay in a phlebotomy-only scope.

It is a strong entry point specifically because of how Washington credentials it. The Medical Assistant-Phlebotomist credential sits inside the same structure as the Medical Assistant-Registered and Medical Assistant-Certified categories, so hours and training accumulate toward a broader scope — and the medical assistant row in this state pays a $59,290 median against phlebotomy's $48,880. Few states offer that clean a progression from a first clinical job.

Because the state's wage floor does most of the work. Washington has the highest statewide minimum wage of any state, with Seattle and SeaTac setting higher local minimums, and phlebotomy pay sits close enough to that floor for it to compress the whole distribution. The result is a metro table running from Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater at $47,280 to Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue at $49,900 — a span narrow enough that geography is essentially neutral on gross pay, and decisively negative once Puget Sound housing costs are counted. For anyone weighing a move within Washington in this job, the cost side dominates entirely.

Not that Washington draws less blood than other states. It means fewer workers are counted on SOC 31-9097 in Washington relative to its workforce size, and the state's credentialling structure is a large part of why: because phlebotomy is a scope within the medical assistant framework, a great deal of the drawing done in Washington clinics is performed by staff who hold a broader medical assistant credential and are counted on the medical assistant row. Reading the low quotient as a shortage — or as weak demand — would misread an administrative fact as an economic one.

Setting and shift. Hospital laboratory work carries evening, night and weekend differentials that the straight-time median excludes entirely, and inpatient draws, paediatric and difficult-access work, and mobile or donor-centre collection all price above outpatient draw stations. That accounts for most of the distance between the $48,880 median and the $58,370 seventy-fifth percentile. Above that, the $64,080 ninetieth percentile is lead and training roles — or, more commonly in this state, a phlebotomist who has expanded the credential and moved onto the medical assistant ladder.