Surgical Technologist Salary by US Metro Area (2026)
Metro-level surgical tech pay frequently differs from state averages by 10 to 25 percent. The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro tops the country at $91,150 per year while many southeastern metros sit in the $50,000 to $55,000 range. Per-metro analysis surfaces the employer concentration, union pay environment, and commute-belt economics that state-level data hides.
New York City
$72,800 to $78,000 metro mean. Mount Sinai, NYU Langone, Northwell, NewYork-Presbyterian, MSK. 1199SEIU union pay, Health Care Worker Bonus.
San Francisco Bay Area
$91,150 metro mean (highest US metro). UCSF, Stanford, Kaiser Northern California, Sutter, John Muir. SEIU-UHW union pay, biotech research-OR demand.
Boston
$74,000 to $78,000 metro mean. Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey, Boston Children's, Dana-Farber. State surgical-assistant licensure.
Why metro-level data matters
State-level surgical tech pay data smooths over substantial intra-state variation. California's $78,340 state mean hides the Bay Area's $91,150 metro mean and the Central Valley's $60,000 to $65,000 metro pay. New York's $70,240 state mean hides the NYC metro's $73,000 to $78,000 range and the upstate New York pay that often falls below $60,000. Texas's $60,380 state mean hides Houston Medical Center's premium pay and the rural Texas pay that falls well below $50,000.
For surgical technologists making relocation or job-search decisions, metro-level data is the right grain of analysis. The metro determines the employer set, the union environment, the cost of living, and the commute structure. Two surgical techs working at adjacent hospitals in the same state but in different metros can have meaningfully different real compensation profiles. The state-level summary is a useful first cut but not a sufficient basis for career decisions.