Respiratory Therapist Salary in San Antonio, TX 2026,
$77,900 Median | BLS + Market Data

San Antonio respiratory therapists earn a BLS MSA median of $77,900/yr, or $37.45 an hour, across the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro, with a published band of $61,650 to $94,660. That is 2.1% below the Texas statewide median and 5.3% below the US median. Specialty credentials and shift pattern account for most of the movement within the band.

No — San Antonio runs 2.1% below the Texas statewide median for this occupation. The metro trains a large number of respiratory care practitioners relative to the number of positions it opens each year, and comfortable entry-level supply is the usual mechanism behind a discount like that. The gap narrows considerably among therapists holding critical-care specialty credentials.

Neonatal, paediatric and critical-care transport teams at the metro's tertiary hospitals. Those roles require specialty credentials beyond the entry registration, carry call obligations, and are the realistic route to the $94,660 top of the published band. General floor coverage at the same hospital sits close to the metro median instead.

A Texas respiratory care practitioner licence issued by the Texas Medical Board. You complete an accredited respiratory care programme, obtain the National Board for Respiratory Care credential and apply to the board; the licence is statewide, so it moves with you to any Texas metro. Specialty credentials for neonatal or adult critical care are added on top through the NBRC rather than the state.

Less than it appears. Texas levies no state income tax and no local wage tax applies here, so a therapist's take-home from this metro's median compares favourably with a nominally higher salary in a state that withholds. San Antonio also has the lowest housing costs of the major Texas metros, which is the practical offset to a figure that sits below both the state and national medians.

San Antonio's employment concentration for respiratory therapists is slightly below the national average, which is surprising for a city with this much tertiary care. The explanation is on the supply side: the metro's community colleges and health-science campuses run large respiratory care programmes whose graduates prefer to stay, and hospitals filling roles from a reliable local pipeline have little reason to bid rates upward. The discount therefore lives in the entry tier, not the specialty one.

OEWS reports base wages, and in an occupation this shift-driven the differentials for nights, weekends and holidays are a substantial share of real annual income — particularly in the critical-care roles at the top of the band. The estimate also blends the whole San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA, so smaller community hospitals in the surrounding counties are averaged in with the medical centre's tertiary units.

Respiratory care has an unusually clear escalation path: the entry registration gets you onto the floor, and each additional NBRC specialty credential — adult critical care, neonatal-paediatric, sleep — opens a specific unit that pays a differential. In San Antonio, where the entry tier is well supplied, credential stacking is essentially the only reliable route out of the lower half of the band, and hospitals here will often fund it in exchange for a service commitment.