Respiratory Therapist Salary in Ohio 2026,
$79,920 Median | BLS Data by City

Ohio respiratory therapists earn a median $79,920 a year, $38.42 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $75,280 and $90,380 and a full range of $65,580 to $97,030. That is 2.9% below the $82,280 national median.

Toledo at $82,280, then Canton-Massillon at $82,200, Columbus at $81,860, Cincinnati at $81,600 and Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek at $81,420. The five metros span less than a thousand dollars and all sit above the statewide median of $79,920 — in Ohio the shift you work matters far more than the city you work in.

The State Medical Board of Ohio. Respiratory care licensure was consolidated into the medical board rather than being run by a standalone respiratory board, so applications, renewals and discipline all sit there. Licensure requires graduation from an accredited respiratory care programme and National Board for Respiratory Care credentialing, and the Registered Respiratory Therapist designation is what Ohio hospitals require for ICU and neonatal work.

Ohio's state income tax is a flat 2.75% in 2026 with roughly the first twenty-six thousand dollars of taxable income exempt. Most Ohio cities add 1% to 2.5% on top — Columbus, Cleveland and Akron are all at 2.5% — usually applied where you work. At the $79,920 median the municipal tax approaches the size of the state tax, and it applies to differentials and overtime as well as base pay.

They are the main pay mechanic in the profession. Ohio hospitals pay night, weekend and on-call differentials on top of base hourly rates, and critical-care, neonatal and transport assignments carry their own premiums. A therapist on permanent nights can sit near the $90,380 seventy-fifth percentile on the same base rate as a day-shift colleague near the $79,920 median.

Disease burden and hospital density. Ohio has above-average rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and smoking-related respiratory illness, an older population, and one of the denser hospital networks in the Midwest including three major academic children's hospitals with substantial neonatal intensive care capacity. That combination supports a location quotient of 1.33 — a third more respiratory therapists per worker than the national average. What it does not do is raise pay, because the state's training pipeline supplies the demand.

The published figure is an annualised salaried-equivalent number, and in a profession where much of the real variation comes from differentials and overtime it understates what many Ohio RTs actually earn. A therapist working consistent nights with weekend rotation banks meaningfully more than $79,920 implies. Part-time and PRN therapists, a large group in Ohio's long-term care and community hospital sector, will not see the annualised figure at all.

A genuine specialisation route. Ohio's academic children's hospitals in Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland run large neonatal and paediatric intensive care programmes with transport and ECMO teams, and NBRC neonatal-paediatric specialty credentials plus team membership are how an Ohio RT reaches the $90,380 seventy-fifth percentile and the $97,030 ninetieth without leaving bedside practice. Few states offer that pathway at comparable scale.