Respiratory Therapist Salary in Virginia 2026,
$82,910 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Virginia figure is $82,910 a year, or $39.86 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $65,540 at the 10th percentile to $106,470 at the 90th and quartiles at $78,820 and $94,770. That is 0.8% above the national median of $82,280. The row is SOC 29-1126, an exact match to the occupation.

The Board of Medicine, within the Department of Health Professions — the same board that licenses physicians and occupational therapists. That is an unusual concentration and it catches out therapists relocating from states with dedicated respiratory care boards. Licensure requires an accredited programme and the national credentialing examination, with continuing education for renewal and no additional Virginia examination.

Charlottesville at $86,720, then Richmond $81,750, Lynchburg $81,470, Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk $80,990 and Roanoke $78,820. Charlottesville's lead most plausibly reflects academic medical centre employment with a higher proportion of critical care and specialist work. Northern Virginia is absent, as from every Virginia metro table on this site.

No. Virginia participates in the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact and the Nurse Licensure Compact, but there is no equivalent arrangement for respiratory therapy that the state belongs to. A therapist relocating here applies to the Board of Medicine directly and cannot practise until the Virginia licence issues — a real timeline constraint that the state's compact professions do not face.

In critical care and specialist assignment, not by relocating. The metro table spans about ten percent while the band from the $82,910 median to the $94,770 seventy-fifth percentile and $106,470 ninetieth spans considerably more. Neonatal, adult critical care and transport specialisation, and shift lead and supervisory responsibility, are what move the number.

That the profession has a high floor and reaches its middle quickly. A 25th percentile of $78,820 against a median of $82,910 is under five percent apart, which means a Virginia respiratory therapist with a few years of practice is close to the median — the credential and the initial competence do most of the work. The corollary is that continuing to do the same job for another decade will not move earnings much, and the meaningful progression is entirely in the upper half. Anyone planning a long career should be targeting critical care or neonatal specialisation, transport, or a supervisory and educator track deliberately rather than expecting seniority to deliver.

Practically, because it determines where you apply and how long it takes. Virginia concentrates an unusual number of professions under the Board of Medicine — physicians, occupational therapists and respiratory therapists among them — where most states use dedicated boards or a general professional regulator. A therapist relocating from a state with a respiratory care board will search for a Virginia equivalent, find none, and may conclude the profession is unlicensed here. It is not, and the licence must issue before practice begins. In a state with no compact arrangement for this profession, that application is the binding constraint on a start date.

Unremarkably, which is a legitimate finding. The median is 0.8% above national, the location quotient of 0.90 indicates the state employs the profession slightly below the national rate, and Virginia trails Wisconsin, Illinois, Vermont and Georgia in its peer group while leading Maine. The income tax tops out at 5.75% with no local layer, which is favourable. Set against the stronger state markets for this profession, several of which publish well above it, Virginia is a middling market — and the honest advice is that the decision should turn on personal circumstances and specialisation plans rather than on the state figure.