ALBUQUERQUE -- Results from a survey of nearly 10,000 radiologic technologists showed their average annual compensation is $58,673, an increase of 12.8 percent over 2004's average of $52,001. This compares to the 19 percent increase in average annual compensation from 2001 to 2004. These findings are from the 2007 Wage and Salary Survey report conducted by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists.

"While compensation continues to increase," said ASRT's Director of Research, Richard Harris, Ph.D., "the rate of increase has slowed down. This is probably due to the closing of the gap from the shortage of radiologic technologists we experienced a few years ago. The data from this survey coincides with the information we have from the staffing surveys that ASRT has conducted."

The ASRT conducted its survey in February and March. Questionnaires were sent to random samples of R.T.s registered with the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists. The samples included radiographers, radiation therapists, nuclear medicine technologists, CT technologists, MR technologists, mammographers, sonographers, cardiovascular-interventional technologists, bone densitometrists, quality management specialists and fusion or "other" specialists from each of the 50 states. In addition, all active registrants in Washington, D.C., and those who listed "radiologist assistant" as their primary sphere of employment were sent invitations to participate in the survey. A total of 9,905 radiologic technologists returned completed questionnaires. The survey has a 1 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.

Survey results also showed California had the highest annual compensation at $75,873, followed by Massachusetts at $71,574, Washington, D.C., at $68,585, Connecticut at $66,471 and Oregon at $66,152. The nation's lowest base annual compensation was in West Virginia with an average annual compensation of $45,627, followed by South Dakota at $48,902, Alabama at $49,131, Arkansas at $50,244 and North Dakota at $50,601.

Other survey findings:

* Employee Benefits - Employers provide many benefits to R.T.s. More than 69 percent of those surveyed had life insurance, 82 percent had health insurance, nearly 69 percent had dental insurance, more than 83 percent participated in retirement or pension programs and nearly 59 percent had tuition assistance available to them.
* Overtime - More than 75 percent reported receiving additional pay for hours worked outside a normal 40-hour work week. Of those who are paid for overtime, about 71 percent indicated that overtime pay accounted for 5 percent or less of their total annual compensation, while 5.4 percent said that it accounted for more than 20 percent of their total compensation.
* On-call shifts - Forty-four percent of respondents said they are paid for being on call. Each time they are called in, they receive an average of $38.28 per hour or earn $74.26 for each session.

"It's impressive that in a time of justifiable concern about requests for personal information," said ASRT's Chief Academic Officer, Sal Martino, Ed.D., "that so many R.T.s were willing to contribute their data to this year's Wage and Salary Survey for the benefit of the profession as a whole." To read or download the complete 107-page Wage and Salary Survey, visit the ASRT's Web site at www.asrt.org/wss2007.