Respiratory Therapist Salary in Louisiana 2026,
$75,240 Median | BLS Data by City

Louisiana respiratory therapists earn a median $75,240 a year, or $36.17 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $61,520 at the 10th percentile to $91,200 at the 90th. That is 8.6% below the national median of $82,280. The band is comparatively narrow at the bottom — a $61,520 tenth percentile on a $75,240 median — because the occupation has a licence and a defined entry credential, so there is no informal low-paid tier beneath it.

Barely a difference between them. Slidell-Mandeville-Covington publishes $76,680, New Orleans-Metairie $76,590, Lafayette $76,210, Hammond $75,990 and Monroe $75,770 — a spread of under a thousand dollars across the whole table. For this occupation in this state, geography is not a pay lever; credential level and shift assignment are. Where geography does matter is cost of living, and on that measure Monroe and Hammond pay the same as New Orleans for considerably less.

The Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners. Louisiana is one of the states that places respiratory care under its medical board rather than a separate respiratory or allied-health board, so the same body that licenses physicians issues the respiratory therapist licence. The credential the board and employers build on is the National Board for Respiratory Care sequence — the CRT entry credential and the RRT advanced one.

It helps more here than on the state's lower-paid clinical rows. Louisiana moved to a flat 3% individual income tax for 2026 from a top rate of 4.25%, with a larger standard deduction, and on a $75,240 salary that is a real annual saving. It does not close the 8.6% gap to the national median on its own, and Louisiana's high combined sales tax recovers part of it — but paired with housing costs well below the US average, the net position for a Louisiana respiratory therapist is better than the wage comparison alone suggests.

A location quotient of 1.45 means the state employs them at nearly one and a half times the national rate for its workforce size. Louisiana has above-average prevalence of COPD, asthma and other chronic respiratory conditions and high inpatient utilisation, both of which generate steady respiratory care volume. That is a job-security argument rather than a wage argument — the demand sits largely in hospital and safety-net budgets, which is why high employment coexists with pay 8.6% below the national figure.

Because the payer, not the patient, sets the wage. Respiratory therapist demand in Louisiana is generated by chronic disease burden and inpatient volume, but it is met by hospitals whose revenue is heavily weighted toward Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement. Those rates are set nationally and do not rise because a particular state has more COPD. The result is the pattern this page shows: a 1.45 location quotient — plenty of jobs — sitting alongside a median 8.6% below the national one. Volume creates security in Louisiana respiratory care; it does not create leverage.

It is a hospital-weighted number. OEWS pools staff therapists across acute care, long-term acute care, skilled nursing and home respiratory services, and the mix of those settings differs sharply between the New Orleans market and rural north Louisiana even though the published metro medians are nearly identical. It also assumes full-year employment, which understates the earnings of therapists working substantial overtime — common in a state with this occupation's concentration — and overstates those working reduced schedules.

Shift differential and credential, in that order for immediate effect. Louisiana hospitals staff respiratory therapy around the clock, and night, weekend and holiday differentials are a standing part of the compensation rather than an occasional bonus; a therapist on permanent nights can sit near the $80,150 seventy-fifth percentile on the same base grade as a day colleague at the median. The RRT credential and NBRC specialty certifications then move the base grade itself, which is what carries someone toward the $91,200 top of the band.