Most people enter healthcare administration because they want to build a career in an area where their actions directly benefit others. But that doesn’t mean they’re not interested in knowing what kind of healthcare administrator salaries they can expect.
For those earning a master’s degree in healthcare administration, there’s a double dose of good news. Both the healthcare industry as a whole and a career in healthcare administration specifically offer significant job growth and strong salaries. For those who want to earn the top pay in the profession, a master’s degree is a must. Most of the top healthcare administrator salaries come with jobs that require a master’s degree. The outlook for the profession is strong both nationally and in Massachusetts.
Growth In The Healthcare Industry
The healthcare industry overtook retail in 2017 to become the industry that employs the most Americans. That’s a remarkable shift in the nation’s workforce. It’s not a temporary change. Most experts expect the trend to continue as the country’s population ages over the next few decades. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts dramatic growth to continue in healthcare. The agency projects 2.4 million new jobs in healthcare in the next decade with 15% growth between 2019 and 2029. That’s much faster than the 4% average growth expected for all jobs over that same time period.
Pay for Healthcare Administrators
For healthcare administrators, the growth projections are also high. The BLS predicts 32% growth in the number of healthcare administrators by 2029, with more than 133,200 people joining the field. The agency lists administrators under the category of “medical and health services managers.” Nationally, the mean annual healthcare administrator salary reached $118,800 in May 2020. Healthcare administrators will find the most jobs in these five states: California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. However, of those five states, New York and Massachusetts rank among the best in pay.
Outlook for Massachusetts Healthcare Administrators
While the situation is positive for healthcare administrators across the nation, the picture is even rosier in Massachusetts for healthcare administrators. Massachusetts ranks in the Top 5 states in terms of the number of healthcare administrators employed, with 16,310 people working in the occupation. The state also offers pay that is much higher than the national average, with hospital administrators making a mean annual wage of $136,930 in May 2020.
In the Boston area, that mean annual salary was even higher in May 2020, reaching $143,020. The city’s metro area, which includes Cambridge and Nashua, New Hampshire employs the third most healthcare administrators in the nation, behind only New York City and Los Angeles. Across all of Massachusetts, healthcare administrator salaries for those in the top 25% of pay reached a mean annual salary of $163,490, according to the BLS.
Clearly, entering the healthcare administrator career field offers BC MHA graduates a chance to play a central role in providing efficient and effective healthcare, while also providing them a strong level of compensation.