News Health

What to Expect for a Salary in Health Care Administration

Share this post

What can you expect for a health care administration salary? As the American population ages over the next decade and beyond, jobs in health care and social services will expand, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With that comes burgeoning growth in health care management jobs – in hospitals, clinics, practitioners’ offices, home health care, health maintenance organizations, the pharmaceutical industry and more.

Salaries are expected to grow as the field of health care expands. The most current salary information for health services managers shows yearly wages ranging from $53,940 to $150,560 in the United States, with the mean annual wage at $98,460, the BLS reports.

“Earnings of medical and health services managers vary by type and size of the facility and by level of responsibility,” according to the BLS’ online Occupational Outlook Handbook. “For example, the Medical Group Management Association reported that, in 2010, median compensation for administrators was $86,459 in practices with six or fewer physicians; $115,000 in practices with seven to 25 physicians; and $150,756 in practices with 26 or more physicians.”

Health care administrators are not only found working in clinics, hospitals or practitioners’ offices. They also are employed in a number of other industries, from computer networking to pharmaceutics.

The BLS reports the health care administration salary (the mean annual wage) by industry in this way:

  • Computer systems design and related services: $146,160
  • Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing: $142,210
  • Drugs and druggists’ sundries merchant wholesalers: $136,690
  • Navigational, measuring, electromedical and control instruments manufacturing: $135,500
  • Data processing, hosting and related services: $134,280
  • Specialty hospitals (excludes psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals): $112,830
  • Medical and diagnostic laboratories: $105,190
  • General medical and surgical hospitals: $104,680
  • Physicians’ offices: $97,330
  • Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals: $95,380
  • Outpatient care services: $94,720
  • Home health care services: $88,670
  • Nursing care facilities: $82,240

In northern New England, here’s what you can find for a health care administration salary overall (mean annual wage), according to the BLS:

  • Vermont: $89,980
  • New Hampshire: $95,140
  • Maine: $85,430

The University of Vermont offers professional certificates in Healthcare Administration and Healthcare Management. Visit learn.uvm.edu.