Kentucky Respiratory Therapist Salaries

The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet (KEWDC) expects a 27% increase in respiratory therapy jobs between 2010 and 2020.

In 2011, the KEWDC designated the field of respiratory therapy as being the eighth fastest growing occupation in the state that generally required an associate’s degree. According to the Committee on the Accreditation for Respiratory Care, over 91% of Kentucky’s respiratory therapist graduates found jobs in 2012. Of the 100 new jobs expected to become available each year, 60% of them are predicted to come from growth in the field.

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The KEWDC indicated that 2,320 respiratory therapists were employed in Kentucky in 2010. This state had the highest concentration of respiratory therapy jobs in the country in 2013 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The BLS reported that over one third of the state’s respiratory therapists were employed in three nonmetropolitan areas in 2013. These areas had the second to fourth greatest concentration of respiratory therapy jobs of any nonmetropolitan area in the country:

Area of Kentucky
Rank
West Central
2
South Central
3
East
4

The KEWDC provides 2013 salary information for respiratory therapists. The average annual respiratory therapist salary in Kentucky was $46,081. Entry-level respiratory therapists averaged $37,636 while experienced ones made $50,429 a year on average. Salary data for Kentucky cities that had average salaries higher than the state’s average are shown below:

Kentucky Area
Entry-level
Experienced
Louisville
$40730
$52780
Fivco
$34616
$53086
Lincoln Trail
$38514
$50588
Kentucky River
$37375
$50516

The BLS provides 2013 salary data for some of Kentucky’s larger cities. This information is shown in the following table:

Area Name
Employment
Annual Median Salary
Bowling Green KY
130
44820
Elizabethtown KY
Estimate Not Released
52510
Huntington-Ashland WV-KY-OH
200
49060
Lexington-Fayette KY
410
45170
Owensboro KY
40
45180
West Kentucky nonmetropolitan area
190
43110
South Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area
270
44010
West Central Kentucky nonmetropolitan area
290
42480
East Kentucky nonmetropolitan area
170
38350