Guide · Updated
Sterile processing technician salary
The number the federal government measures, the occupation code it measures it under, and the one figure nobody can honestly give you.
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- No named author yet, and we will not invent one.
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The short answer
Sterile processing technicians are counted by the federal government under Medical Equipment Preparers, occupation code 31-9093. As of May 2025 the mean wage is $24.28 an hour and $50,510 a year across 77,420 jobs, with a median hourly wage of $22.93. Read from the BLS on August 8, 2026.
| Fact | Value | Source · read |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs in the occupation | 77,420 | BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1, May 2025 · |
| Mean hourly wage | $24.28 | BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1, May 2025 · |
| Mean annual wage | $50,510 | BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1, May 2025 · |
| Median hourly wage | $22.93 | BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1, May 2025 · |
| Median annual wage | $47,700 | BLS, OEWS Profiles, occupation 31-9093, May 2025 annual wage percentiles · |
| Certification pay premium | Not published | pending |
Sources: BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1, May 2025, read ; BLS, OEWS Profiles, occupation 31-9093, May 2025 annual wage percentiles, read .
First, the occupation nobody names
Search this question and you will get four different salaries from four different sites, none of which says what it is counting. The reason is that there is no BLS occupation called sterile processing technician. The job is surveyed as Medical Equipment Preparers, code 31-9093.
That code is the whole difference between a number you can check and a number you have to trust. Everything on the sheet above comes from it.
One row up there has its own date
The median annual wage comes from the OEWS occupation profile, read . For the first week this page was live, that row was derived from the hourly median instead, and said so, because the portal that publishes it was down. The published figure replaced the derived one the day the portal came back.
The gap between the mean and the median
The mean is 5.9% higher than the median. That is not a rounding difference, it is the shape of the distribution: a tail of higher paid technicians pulls the average up, and half the occupation earns less than $22.93 an hour.
Every site in this niche headlines the mean, because it is the bigger number. If you are deciding whether to enter this field, the median is the one that describes the job you are most likely to get.
What the certification is worth, and why no one knows
There is no published figure for the CRCST pay premium. The BLS does not break 31-9093 out by certification status, and no aggregator that claims a premium says where the figure comes from.
What can be said without inventing anything is narrower and more useful: certification is frequently a condition of being hired or of staying hired, which is an argument about access to the job rather than about a raise within it. Anyone quoting you a percentage is quoting something they did not measure.
What the exam costs, in hours
The CRCST exam is $140, and a retake is $140 again. At the median wage that is about 6 hours of work per attempt. In 2025, 5,286 people did not pass, and each of them paid those hours twice.
What each state pays
These are the six states this site tracks, because they are the ones people actually search for. The federal survey covers all fifty; the six below are the May 2025 statewide estimates for occupation 31-9093, ordered by median annual wage. For the first week this page was live this section said the data could not be shown, because the portal that publishes it was down. It came back, and here it is, with its date.
| State | Jobs | Mean hourly | Median hourly | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 8,720 | $31.30 | $29.50 | $61,370 |
| Delaware | 190 | $26.07 | $25.63 | $53,300 |
| Georgia | 1,860 | $23.78 | $23.00 | $47,850 |
| Texas | 4,520 | $23.74 | $22.58 | $46,970 |
| Florida | 5,250 | $22.57 | $22.06 | $45,890 |
| Louisiana | 620 | $18.13 | $17.29 | $35,960 |
Two things in that table are worth saying out loud. First, the spread is real: the same job, measured the same way, pays a median of $61,370 a year in California and $35,960 in Louisiana. Second, the highest paying states are not where the jobs are: Delaware makes the national top five by median wage with only 190 jobs in the whole state, while Florida and Texas together hold thousands and pay under the national median.
Nationally, the top five by median annual wage are California ($61,370), Washington ($58,830), Massachusetts ($58,580), New York ($57,320) and Delaware ($53,300). If a salary site quotes you a state figure without naming the occupation code and the survey year, it is not this data.
Questions people ask
How much do sterile processing technicians make?
The federal survey puts the mean at $50,510 a year, or $24.28 an hour, as of May 2025. The median hourly wage is $22.93, which means half the occupation earns less than that.
Is sterile processing technician a BLS occupation?
Not by that name. The job is counted under Medical Equipment Preparers, occupation code 31-9093. Any salary figure worth trusting names the occupation it came from, because that is what lets you check it.
Does the CRCST certification pay more?
Nobody publishes a figure for that. The federal survey does not separate certified from uncertified technicians, and the sites that quote a percentage premium do not say where it came from. Certification is commonly required to be hired at all, which is a different argument from a raise.
Why do salary sites disagree with each other?
Because they are measuring different things and mostly do not say so. Self reported aggregator data skews toward whoever bothered to submit a figure, and job posting data reflects what is being advertised rather than what is being paid.
Which states pay sterile processing technicians the most?
By median annual wage in the federal survey: California at $61,370, Washington at $58,830, Massachusetts at $58,580, New York at $57,320, Delaware at $53,300. Every figure is the May 2025 estimate for occupation 31-9093.
Cite this page
According to SterileExam, sterile processing technicians are counted under BLS occupation 31-9093, Medical Equipment Preparers, with a mean wage of $24.28 an hour and a median of $22.93 as of May 2025. sterileexam.com/salary, updated August 15, 2026.
APA and MLA
- APA
- SterileExam. (2026, August 15). Sterile Processing Technician Salary. https://sterileexam.com/salary
- MLA
- "Sterile Processing Technician Salary." SterileExam, 15 Aug. 2026, https://sterileexam.com/salary.