While mergers have some clinicians checking the classifieds in some areas of the country, they are being grabbed up in other regions. The location of openings around the country is simply not equal to where potential applicants live. People are not willing to move out of a metropolitan area to a more rural area. Attrition to other occupations, rather than relocation of an entire family to another area, is viewed as the way to go when a job is lost. The Pacific seems to be the region where the money is tops for most positions.
Men make more money in every position.
In 1993, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Board of Registry Research and Development initiated a ten-year study of career patterns of medical technologists. Their survey reported that approximately 75 percent were women, most were Caucasian, the majority were staff medical technologists, and 17 percent considered themselves solely microbiologists. Large suburban settings paid the highest mean hourly wage, whereas small rural settings paid the least. Not surprisingly, older, more experienced technologists were paid more than those who were younger and less experienced. Larger institutions paid better than smaller ones, and generalist and microbiology technologists reported a higher mean hourly wage than their counterparts in other departments, such as chemistry.