Radiologic Technologist Salary in Iowa 2026,
$65,930 Median | BLS Data by City

Iowa radiologic technologists earn a median $65,930 a year, or $31.70 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $54,360 at the 10th percentile to $86,520 at the 90th. That is 17.7% below the national median of $80,110 — the widest gap of any Iowa clinical occupation on this site. The band's upper quartile tells a different story: at $79,390, it sits within about seven hundred dollars of the national median.

Dubuque, at $74,530, nearly nine thousand dollars above the state median. Des Moines-West Des Moines follows at $67,640, then Ames $66,760, Iowa City $65,820 and Cedar Rapids $64,880. Dubuque is a small metropolitan area and its estimate rests on a limited sample, so treat it as an indication rather than a reliable market rate; the more representative Iowa picture is the tight cluster from $64,880 to $67,640 across the larger markets.

Yes. Iowa requires a state permit to operate radiographic equipment on humans, administered through the state health department's radiological health programme, and certification by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists is the normal basis for obtaining it. A technologist moving into Iowa with a current ARRT credential still needs the Iowa permit before working. Advanced modality certifications — CT, MRI, mammography, interventional — are ARRT post-primary credentials rather than separate state permits.

Partly, and honestly it has to be said that it does not fully. Iowa's flat 3.8% income tax and housing costs well below the national average mean $65,930 supports a standard of living that the same figure would not buy in a coastal state. But a 17.7% shortfall against the national median is large, and the ARRT credential is portable — which means an Iowa technologist genuinely has the option of taking it elsewhere. The stronger response within Iowa is modality certification, which moves the wage rather than the cost base.

Because the demand is local and the competition is local. Iowa's dispersed hospital network needs imaging coverage in many small facilities — which is why the location quotient is 1.11, above the national rate — but those facilities bid against each other in a regional market rather than against national employers. Compare the state's nurse practitioner row, where the credential is graduate-level, scarce, and recruited nationally: Iowa pays within 1.6% of the national median there. The difference is the credential's market, not the state's generosity.

Because the two credentials sit in different labour markets. A nurse practitioner holds a graduate degree and a national certification that is scarce everywhere, and Iowa employers bidding below the national rate lose the candidate to another state. A radiologic technologist holds a two-year credential produced in volume by Iowa's own community colleges, supplying a market that is largely regional. The state's imaging departments therefore compete with each other rather than with the country. That is not a comment on the skill involved — it is a comment on where the supply comes from and who is bidding for it, and it is the single most important thing for an Iowa technologist to understand about their own wage.

The row is broad and the small-metro estimates are thin. SOC 29-2034 covers radiologic technologists and technicians across settings, from large hospital imaging departments to clinics and orthopaedic offices, and it does not separate technologists holding advanced modality certifications from those doing general radiography — which is precisely the distinction that matters most for pay. Meanwhile Dubuque's $74,530 sits on a small sample. The reliable reading of this page is the state ladder, not any individual metro figure.

Modality certification above everything. The move from general radiography to CT, MRI, mammography or interventional work carries the base rate from around the $65,930 median toward the $79,390 upper quartile, and Iowa employers will frequently fund the training because they cannot recruit certified technologists otherwise. Second, shift and call: imaging runs around the clock and rural Iowa hospitals rely on call coverage, which is paid separately and can be substantial. Third, travel and contract assignments filling rural vacancies, which pay a premium for the same reason those vacancies persist.