Technician Wages Flat, Labs Still Tightening Labor Costs

Similar to our findings over the last decade, LMT’s 2018 Wage Survey shows that technician wages are still not seeing any significant growth. Overall hourly earnings are flat compared to our 2016 Wage Survey and 52% of our survey participants took steps to tighten labor costs in the last two years, most commonly by freezing pay raises, reducing/eliminating overtime, cutting hours or laying off technicians (see How Some Labs are Controlling Labor Costs ).

Lab owners and managers point the finger at unpredictable workflows, shrinking profit margins, price-seeking dentists, price-cutting labs and overseas competition, and say these prevailing market conditions are affecting their ability to raise employee wages and impacting other personnel decisions.

Despite these obstacles,...