Respiratory Therapist Salary in Georgia 2026,
$83,700 Median | BLS Data by City

Georgia respiratory therapists earn a median $83,700 a year, $40.24 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $74,400 and $101,690 and a full range of $65,050 to $112,320. That is a long range for allied health, and it maps directly onto the difference between community hospital and tertiary critical care practice.

Rome pays the most at $98,720, then Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell at $95,520, Athens-Clarke County at $81,730, Macon-Bibb County at $80,730 and Augusta-Richmond County at $78,560. The cliff between the top two and the rest is stark, and it corresponds to where Georgia's high-acuity hospital capacity actually sits.

Georgia licenses respiratory care professionals through the Georgia Composite Medical Board, which oversees the profession alongside physicians and physician assistants rather than through a standalone respiratory board. You complete an accredited respiratory therapy programme, obtain the national credential the Board recognises, and apply for the Georgia licence including a background check. Practising without the state licence is not permitted regardless of national credentials.

Georgia issues licences by endorsement to respiratory care professionals licensed in another state whose requirements the Composite Medical Board considers substantially equivalent, subject to the Board's application, verification and background check process. Because the Board sits within the medical licensing structure, endorsement timelines track the Board's meeting cycle rather than a rolling administrative process.

Because Rome's regional medical centre serves a wide north-west Georgia catchment with high-acuity critical care, and it competes for therapists against Atlanta and Chattanooga without Atlanta's supply of local graduates. That combination — tertiary-level acuity plus a thin local labour pool — is the classic condition for a small-market premium, and it is the same dynamic that puts Rome at the top of Georgia's pharmacist table.

Acuity concentration. A respiratory therapist doing general floor and emergency department work at a community hospital and one running ventilators, ECMO circuits and transports at a tertiary centre are counted in the same occupation, but the second requires registry-level credentialing, specialty competencies and a heavy call burden. Georgia's rural hospital closures have sharpened that division by concentrating the complex work into fewer centres.

It is meaningful in timing rather than difficulty. Because respiratory care sits under the Composite Medical Board, applications move on the Board's schedule rather than through a dedicated allied health office, which can add weeks compared with states that license through a standalone board. Therapists relocating to Georgia should start the licence process well before their intended start date.

Toward critical care credentialing and a tertiary centre. The distance from the state median of $83,700 to the 75th percentile of $101,690 is almost entirely the difference between general practice and intensive care specialisation, and ECMO and critical care transport roles are what reach the 90th percentile of $112,320. Both are concentrated in Atlanta and a handful of regional centres, which is why the metro table looks the way it does.