Respiratory Therapist salary in North Carolina: $80,090 median.
Pay for respiratory therapists across North Carolina at every point of the range, against the U.S., the states it borders and the state's metro areas.
Respiratory Therapists in North Carolina earned a median annual wage of $80,090 in May 2025, compared with $82,280 nationally, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey (SOC 29-1126). That is 3% below the U.S. median; the middle half of North Carolina workers in this occupation earned between $68,010 and $87,820.
- North Carolina median
- $80,090
- $38.51 an hour
- U.S. median
- $82,280
- -3% in North Carolina
- Rank, 50 states + DC
- 29 of 51
- by median pay
- Employed in North Carolina
- 4,630
- location quotient 1.04
Advice For a pay conversation in North Carolina, the state median ($80,090) is the sourced middle of the market; the 25th–75th percentile band ($68,010–$87,820) is where half of the state's workers in this occupation fall. Experience, employer, metro and specialty move individual offers within and beyond that band.
North Carolina vs the U.S. at every point of the range
Data Annual wages at five points of the pay distribution, SOC 29-1126, BLS May 2025.
| Point in the pay range | North Carolina | United States | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $63,990 | $63,660 | +1% |
| 25th percentile | $68,010 | $74,520 | -9% |
| Median | $80,090 | $82,280 | -3% |
| 75th percentile | $87,820 | $98,730 | -11% |
| 90th percentile | $99,520 | $118,050 | -16% |
Data The local range is shifted unevenly: the bottom and top move in opposite directions from the national range (+1% at the 10th percentile, -16% at the 90th). Locally, the 90th-percentile wage is 1.56 times the 10th-percentile wage, versus 1.85 times nationally, so pay is less spread out than it is nationally.
How common the job is in North Carolina
Data BLS location quotient: the occupation's share of state employment divided by its share of U.S. employment.
Data The BLS location quotient for this occupation in North Carolina is 1.04, so it is close to the national concentration (1.00 = the same share as nationally). That is about 0.9 jobs per 1,000 jobs in the state.
North Carolina vs the states it borders
Data Same occupation, same BLS release. A higher median elsewhere is not a job offer; cost of living differs.
| State | Median annual wage | vs North Carolina | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | $83,700 | +5% | 5,150 |
| Virginia | $82,910 | +4% | 3,340 |
| North Carolina | $80,090 | 4,630 | |
| South Carolina | $77,740 | -3% | 1,960 |
| Tennessee | $72,140 | -10% | 3,440 |
Where in North Carolina it pays most
Data Metropolitan statistical areas that include part of the state and pass TryHired's reliability rule (500+ jobs, employment PRSE ≤ 20%, mean-wage PRSE ≤ 10%, a published median and a non-degenerate wage distribution). Each is the whole BLS metro area, not a city.
Where respiratory therapists earn the highest medians
Data Highest state medians among the 50 states and DC, BLS May 2025. North Carolina ranks 29.
See every state on the national Respiratory Therapist salary page.
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How this page is built
BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates for North Carolina and national estimates for SOC 29-1126 (Respiratory Therapists). The pay ladder compares the same five published percentiles; the difference column is the local value minus the U.S. value, divided by the U.S. value. Ranks compare published state medians across the 50 states and DC. Employment counts people working in the occupation (excluding the self-employed), not job openings. BLS publishes sampling error for these estimates: the employment estimate has a relative standard error of 2.4%. Lower is more precise; BLS does not publish a standard error for the median itself. Searches this page answers include “respiratory therapist salary nc”, “how much does a respiratory therapist make in nc”, “respiratory therapist salary north carolina” (Ahrefs, U.S.).
- Cost of living: wages are not adjusted for local prices.
- Pay at a specific employer, in one city, or for self-employed workers.
- Local outlook: BLS projections are national.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state and national estimates (2018 SOC), public domain.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
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