Technicians aren’t just a dime a dozen; in fact, there are about two million technicians across the world, and their salaries vary greatly depending on where they work. If you’re curious about what kind of salary range you can expect as a technician, then read on to discover more about this career path and its expected future growth rate!

Salary Ranges by Region

What are technician salaries around the world? In most developed countries, a technician makes an average of $30 to $40 per hour. This figure doesn’t include additional benefits and income from overtime. In developing countries, technicians make much less: between $10 and $15 per hour on average. It’s critical to note that these figures do not include additional work-related expenses such as training or licensing fees. These costs can often be substantial—as high as $3,000 in some areas—and can eat up a significant portion of your technician’s salary. For example, if you earn $20 per hour but spend $2,000 in additional fees over one year, your annual salary is effectively only about $12 per hour (or less).

Salary Breakdown

The United States and Canada are currently home to about one-fifth of all flight operations technicians, with average salaries in 2018 estimated between $61,000 and $83,000. For example, an airline technician’s salary in Australia is expected to grow by a healthy 10% over 5 years. In 2017, Australian flight operations technicians earned an average salary of AU$87,800 (USD 68,747) annually. This sum increased to AU$95,300 ($73,900 USD) in 2018.

The Cheapest Countries

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates survey breaks down technician salaries in each state. According to its findings, technicians are paid highest in the District of Columbia ($34.05 per hour), Alaska ($27.59 per hour), and California ($27.09 per hour). You can see how other states stack up on the chart below: As you can see from our table above, there is a wide range in wages for different types of technicians. Some positions earn as much as $43.75 per hour (nuclear medicine technologists) while others earn as little as $16.96 (medical assistants). On average though, medical assistants make $23.68 an hour and radiologic technologists make $31.07 an hour.

The Most Expensive Countries

The Expense of living varies dramatically from country to country. Although many accountants can travel, moving their families abroad with them, many will have to settle for a lower standard of living. If you’re lucky enough to be working in a foreign land, here’s how much it would cost you on average per month to live there. Note that all prices were converted into U.S. dollars and rounded up or down to reflect exact figures. Prices may vary depending on your location within each city.

The Middle East and Africa

A technician in MENA and Africa can expect to make around $31,000 per year. The annual income of a technician in North America is expected to be approximately $39,000. A person working as a technician in Western Europe earns $44,700 annually. The top accountancy firms in London pay their technicians an average salary of £36,000 every year.

Latin America and the Asia Pacific

Not far behind North America in average technician salaries, Latin America and the Asia Pacific bring home paychecks that are, on average, 40 percent less than technicians make in North America. For example, in Brazil, you can expect to earn about $24,000 a year working as a technician. However, technicians living in South Africa will be bringing home a higher paycheck—the country’s average technician salary is $43,500 per year. However, technicians who live and work in New Zealand take home some of the highest paychecks worldwide—an average of $72,200 per year.

Europe, Australia, and North America

Look around your country. These three areas have among some of the highest technician salaries all over the world. Technicians make about $1,733 per month in Australia, nearly $3,000 per month in Europe, and over $3,500 per month in North America. You can see that there is a big difference between technician salaries in each area; technicians make more money in Europe than they do in Australia or North America. The United States has one of the lowest monthly technician salary averages at only $2,868 per month. This means that an average worker would need to work for almost two months to earn what an average European worker makes in one month!