Respiratory Therapist Salary in Indiana 2026,
$79,730 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Indiana figure is $79,730 a year, or $38.33 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 3.1% below the national median of $82,280. The band is comparatively tight, running $62,730 at the 10th percentile to $94,980 at the 90th, because the profession has one accredited entry route, one national credential and a largely hospital-based employment structure.

Michigan City-La Porte at $82,990, then Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood $81,720, Lafayette-West Lafayette $80,140, South Bend-Mishawaka $79,450 and Evansville $78,990. About four thousand dollars separates the top from the fifth, so the metro is not a useful lever in this profession — acuity, shift and specialisation are.

The Indiana Respiratory Care Committee, which sits under the Medical Licensing Board within the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. Indiana regulates most allied health professions this way — as committees attached to the medical board rather than as freestanding boards — which streamlines administration but means the profession does not have an independent body advocating for its scope. Licensure requires a CoARC-accredited programme and a National Board for Respiratory Care credential.

The national projection is 12.1% growth through 2034, well above average, driven by chronic respiratory disease prevalence and the expansion of respiratory care into pulmonary rehabilitation, sleep medicine, home care and neonatal services. Indiana's share works out to about 200 openings a year, pro-rated from the national figure, on a base of 3,170. The state already employs therapists at 1.10 times the national rate, so it enters that growth better staffed than most — which is part of why the wage sits below the national median.

Because supply has kept pace. A location quotient of 1.10 shows Indiana employs respiratory therapists above the national rate, supported by a good network of CoARC-accredited programmes in the state and neighbouring ones. Where other states face acute shortages that bid wages up, Indiana does not to the same degree. The offsets are structural: a flat 3.05% state income tax with low county rates, and a cost of living well below the national average, which together more than close a twenty-five-hundred-dollar gross gap.

It means respiratory care in Indiana is regulated as an adjunct to medical practice rather than as an autonomous profession. Scope questions — what a therapist may do, under what supervision, with what protocols — are resolved by a committee reporting to the Medical Licensing Board rather than by a board composed primarily of respiratory therapists. Administratively it is efficient, since the Professional Licensing Agency handles the process centrally. Professionally it means the field has less independent institutional voice than in states with dedicated boards.

Shift differentials. Respiratory therapy is a continuous hospital service, so nights, weekends and holidays are unavoidable and the associated premiums are a real but invisible component of the annual figure — two therapists at the same reported salary may be working entirely different rosters. The $38.33 hourly median is the better comparator for evaluating a specific position. Part-time and per-diem work, common in this profession, annualises awkwardly on top of that.

Acuity of practice first: intensive care, neonatal and transport therapy require additional credentials and competencies and sit well above general floor work, accounting for most of the movement through the band. Then shift, since continuous coverage makes differentials available to anyone willing to take them. Then subspecialty diagnostics — pulmonary function testing and sleep medicine are distinct skill sets. Then extracorporeal support roles at tertiary centres, among the most specialised in the profession. And then clinical education and shift leadership at the top of the band.