Radiologic Technologist Salary in South Carolina 2026,
$69,600 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $69,600 a year, or $33.46 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $61,900 and $82,560 and a full range of $51,860 to $96,020. That is 13.1% below the $80,110 national median, but the width of the band matters more than the median here — the 75th percentile clears the national figure.

Myrtle Beach at $75,570, ahead of Columbia at $74,080, Charleston-North Charleston at $72,730, Florence at $72,370 and Greenville-Anderson-Greer at $68,700. Myrtle Beach leading is a retiree-population effect — the Grand Strand has heavy imaging demand relative to its size, and staffing it is harder than staffing Charleston.

Not through an individual practice licence from a professional board — South Carolina has no state radiography licence, which distinguishes it from several neighbouring states. Radiation-producing equipment and its safe operation are regulated through the state's radiation control programme instead. What employers screen on is ARRT registration: the (R) credential plus advanced registries in CT, MRI, mammography or interventional work. In practice ARRT does the job a state licence would.

Interventional and cardiovascular imaging sit at the top, followed by MRI, CT and mammography. Those are what the $82,560 seventy-fifth percentile and the $96,020 ninetieth are made of, and the gap between a general radiographer at the $61,900 twenty-fifth percentile and a multi-registry interventional technologist is more than thirty thousand dollars. Interventional work also carries call, which adds meaningfully on top of base pay.

Faster than in most occupations, because the progression is credential-based rather than seniority-based. An ARRT (R) technologist typically needs a year or two of general experience before cross-training into CT, which is the usual first advanced registry, and MRI or interventional work follows. A technologist who is deliberate about it can hold two or three registries within five or six years, which is the profile that sits at the $82,560 seventy-fifth percentile. There is no state licence ladder in South Carolina to slow that down.

Because 'radiologic technologist' is one occupation code covering several genuinely different jobs. A general radiographer taking chest and extremity films and an interventional technologist working a cardiac catheterisation laboratory with call obligations both appear here, and they are more than thirty thousand dollars apart. Cross-sectional and interventional imaging require additional ARRT registries, carry higher acuity and are harder to staff — so they pay accordingly. The width is therefore not noise; it is a map. It says that the modality decision is worth more than any other choice available to a South Carolina technologist, including which city to work in.

Call and differentials. Interventional and cross-sectional technologists take call, and hospitals pay both a call stipend and a callback rate that an annual base median does not include — for an interventional technologist this can be a substantial share of actual earnings. The figure also blends hospital work with outpatient imaging centres, which typically pay less but offer regular hours and no call. And because South Carolina has no state licence, employer requirements vary more than they would elsewhere, so what a given job actually demands is worth confirming directly.

Registries, and nothing else comes close. Add CT first, then MRI or interventional and cardiovascular, and mammography if that route suits — each additional ARRT registry moves you up the band, and multiple registries are what reach the $82,560 seventy-fifth percentile and the $96,020 ninetieth. Take call, because it is paid separately and is where interventional technologists earn most. Geography is a minor lever: Myrtle Beach at $75,570 against Greenville at $68,700 is under seven thousand dollars, which one advanced registry will beat. Lead technologist and modality supervisor roles are the management route.