Is becoming a phlebotomist a worthwhile career? How much does one make? Well, yes it is worthwhile, but like all other careers, you have to plan for where you want to go if you are going to make good of money out of it.
In the United States, a phlebotomist salary depends on the state where one chooses to practice. The median salary is $20.56 per hour, with a high of more than $25 per hour, and a low of $13.50 per hour. This assumes that one is working 40 hours a week. It also assumes that these phlebotomists are working in regular hospitals and clinics.
The best places to work as phlebotomists, the cities that pay the most, are San Francisco, California; Yuma, Arizona; Fairbanks, Alaska; San Jose, California; and Oakland, California. As you can see, it makes quite a lot of sense for a phlebotomist to try and land a job as a phlebotomist in California. The general trend seems to be that the more densely populated an area is, the more phlebotomists earn.
Alternative Ways To Make Money As A Phlebotomist
There are several ways that you can make more money than your phlebotomist colleagues who work in hospitals. The first is to try and get into a private institution that requires phlebotomists. These are usually aid organizations that require medical teams to be stationed in various places around the world. They tend to pay quite well and depending on where you are posted, you can get a hardship allowance in addition to your salary and other benefits. There is also the added advantage of travelling to different places and learning about different cultures.
You can also be attached to a private laboratory. These are run by companies for profit and they tend to pay better than if you were working for the government or in a large general hospital. These companies are usually research based and they require people who can analyze blood to support the research team.
Another good way to make yourself more money is to offer to do house calls. Although the culture of house calls is dying out, you can carve a niche for yourself if you target groups that are not able to get to a hospital. These include the elderly and the physically handicapped. To get your services, all they have to do is call you. In turn, you go to their homes, draw blood which you take to a private lab for analysis and then bring back the results. You can also target nursing homes and other care facilities which don’t have labs but which require your services.
Working in university labs is an option but you may not necessarily make much more money than your contemporaries in the general hospitals. It is also harder to get a job at a university – they tend to pick from people that they have trained.
Of course, if you added some skills to your resume by taking additional courses you can boost your phlebotomist salary. There are many additional things that you can do in the hospital, but before you train for them, you should be sure that they will not interfere with your phlebotomy work.
