Respiratory Therapist Salary in Mississippi 2026:
$63,270 Median

A median $63,270 a year, or $30.42 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, which is 23.1% below the national median of $82,280. The middle half falls between $57,150 and $75,850 and the full band runs $50,180 to $80,460 — meaning the entire published Mississippi distribution sits below the national median, with no route within the state to reach it.

Jackson at $67,500, essentially level with Gulfport-Biloxi at $66,660, then Hattiesburg at $60,170. Only three metros are published in Mississippi for this occupation. Jackson's edge reflects the academic medical centre; the coast reflects a larger and more competitive hospital market than its population implies. Most of the state's therapists work outside all three.

Through the Mississippi State Department of Health's professional licensure division, which licenses respiratory care practitioners directly rather than through an independent board. You need a degree from an accredited respiratory care programme and the National Board for Respiratory Care credential. Hospital critical care and neonatal assignments in Mississippi generally require registered respiratory therapist standing rather than the entry-level credential alone.

Because the clinical need is exceptional. Mississippi has among the highest rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and smoking-related illness in the country, alongside the most extensive health professional shortage designations. A location quotient of 1.60 — sixty per cent more respiratory therapists per worker than the national average — is what that burden looks like in staffing data. The uncomfortable corollary is that the same rural, low-income health economy generating the demand also constrains what hospitals can pay for it.

Not within the published state data. The Mississippi 90th percentile of $80,460 falls short of the national median of $82,280, so even the top decile of the state's therapists earns less than the typical American one. What does move pay within Mississippi is specialty credentialing, critical care and neonatal assignment, transport team work and supervision — which together carry a therapist from the $63,270 median to the $75,850 seventy-fifth percentile. Beyond that, the honest answer is that neighbouring Tennessee at $72,140 and Alabama at $66,150 both pay more.

It means Mississippi respiratory therapists are doing more clinically demanding work for less money than their counterparts elsewhere, and that the state's hospitals depend on them to a degree that its wages do not acknowledge. A location quotient of 1.60 in a state with among the worst population respiratory health in the country is not an accident — therapists here manage more ventilated patients, longer chronic disease caseloads and thinner physician coverage than the national average. The professional argument for staying is the breadth of experience that produces; the financial argument points across the state line.

It reports wages as paid, so night, weekend and extra-shift differentials are inside the number rather than beside it — a therapist working straight day shifts will sit below the median. With about 1,670 therapists statewide the sample is modest, and with only three published metros most of Mississippi's rural hospital workforce is outside the geography this page describes. The figure also blends acute hospital, long-term acute care, sleep laboratory and home care settings, which pay differently.

Registered respiratory therapist standing first, since it is the practice benchmark and the gate to critical care assignment. Unit second: adult intensive care, neonatal and paediatric work above general ward and pulmonary function. Specialty credentials third — neonatal and paediatric certification, and transport team membership, which in a state with long rural transfers is genuinely in demand. Shift pattern fourth, because differentials are the most reliable earnings lever available. Supervision and education roles are what reach the $80,460 ninetieth percentile, and geography contributes about seven thousand dollars across three metros.