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 Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro tops the country at $105,420 per year, with San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont close behind at $96,990, 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
$84,590 metro mean. Mount Sinai, NYU Langone, Northwell, NewYork-Presbyterian, MSK. 1199SEIU union pay, Health Care Worker Bonus.
San Francisco Bay Area
$96,990 metro mean, San Jose $105,420 (highest US metro). UCSF, Stanford, Kaiser Northern California, Sutter, John Muir. SEIU-UHW union pay, biotech research-OR demand.
Boston
$85,810 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 $82,810 state mean hides the Bay Area's $96,990 metro mean and the Central Valley's $60,000 to $80,000 metro pay. New York's $81,990 state mean hides the NYC metro's $84,590 mean and the upstate New York pay that often falls near or below $65,000. Texas's $66,640 state mean hides Houston's $69,590 metro pay and the rural Texas pay that falls well below $56,000.
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.