undergradly.
Major · Health Professions

The technician tier of respiratory medicine: a smaller sibling to the named RT degree, with a mixed-credential outcome

Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant (CIP 51.0812) is a niche allied-health program — about 385 completions across 26 colleges annually, dominated by proprietary chains like Carrington College and a handful of community colleges. It overlaps with the larger named Respiratory Care Therapy degree (51.0908), but the credential pathway here is more variable, and graduates land in a wider range of roles — from full Respiratory Therapist (after CoARC + NBRC) to pulmonary-lab tech, DME-respiratory aide, or transport-respiratory support.

Schools offering
26
Annual completions
385
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$46k

About this major

Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant (CIP 51.0812) is a small, fragmented program in the allied-health family. The CIP definition describes preparation to administer general respiratory care procedures under the supervision of respiratory therapists in a variety of clinical settings, with instruction in patient data collection and monitoring, airway management, nebulizer installation, breathing-gas application and monitoring, equipment operation and maintenance, and applicable regulations. About 385 degrees are awarded annually across 26 colleges — a fraction of the 6,344 completions across 414 colleges in the named Respiratory Care Therapy degree (CIP 51.0908). The program sits at both associate's and bachelor's levels, but more than 80 percent of completions are associate's, concentrated in proprietary chains and community colleges.

The credential pathway is the central issue with this CIP. The data packet maps only one career — Health Technologists and Technicians, All Other — at a $48,790 median wage with 5.2 percent growth and a 'Postsecondary nondegree award' typical education. That is a tell: the BLS does not classify these graduates uniformly as Respiratory Therapists (SOC 29-1126), where median wages run $77,960 with 13 percent growth. Some 51.0812 graduates do reach the full Respiratory Therapist career, but only by graduating from a CoARC-accredited program and passing the NBRC's CRT or RRT examinations. Non-CoARC programs — and there are some in this CIP — produce graduates who cannot sit for the NBRC exam and therefore cannot become licensed Respiratory Therapists in any of the 49 states requiring licensure.

The school list reflects the program's structure. Four of the top five completers are Carrington College campuses (Las Vegas, Phoenix North, Pleasant Hill, and others), a proprietary allied-health chain. The rest are community colleges — Highline, Muskegon, Tacoma, Salt Lake, Spokane Community College, Delaware Technical Community College — plus Mandl School in NYC. Highline College is the only school in the top list offering both associate's and bachelor's tracks at meaningful volume. Spokane Community College is the only top-list school offering bachelor's-only completions. The proprietary-vs-community-college mix matters because CoARC accreditation and tuition cost vary widely by campus, and the resulting credential trajectory varies with it.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Health technologists and technicians, all other $49k +5.2% Postsecondary nondegree award
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$46k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$45k

Bachelor's

$66k

Who this major is for

You may be a fit here if you have already researched the credential question carefully and have a specific program in mind that you have verified is CoARC-accredited and produces NBRC-eligible graduates. The full Respiratory Therapist career — at $77,960 median wage with 13 percent projected growth, robust state licensure protection, and clear specialty-credential paths into $90-120K territory — is one of the higher-ROI allied-health careers without a master's-degree gate. The work is hands-on, clinical, and deeply patient-facing: you will manage ventilators in ICUs, draw arterial blood gases, run nebulizer treatments, respond to code blues, stabilize neonates in NICUs, and educate COPD and asthma patients on breathing technique and equipment. The post-COVID period has cemented respiratory therapy as a hospital-system priority, and structural drivers — aging COPD/emphysema population, NICU expansion, sleep-apnea diagnosis growth, pulmonary-rehab program expansion — are durable rather than cyclical.

Think twice if the specific program you are considering is the named Respiratory Care Therapy degree (CIP 51.0908) under a different name, or if you have not verified its CoARC accreditation status. The $20,700 wage split between associate's ($45,304) and bachelor's ($66,034) graduates here is not a normal degree premium — it is a signal that pathway outcomes diverge sharply, with bachelor's graduates more reliably reaching the licensed RT career and associate's graduates more often landing in technician-tier roles. Carrington College and similar proprietary chains carry tuition costs significantly above community college equivalents for similar credentials; the ROI math at a proprietary chain depends on whether the campus produces NBRC-eligible graduates and whether you complete the credentialing sequence post-graduation. Community college options at Highline, Tacoma, Spokane, Muskegon, Salt Lake, and Delaware Tech generally offer better cost economics if CoARC accreditation is in place. And if you want flexible career mobility — the option to pivot to PA, DPT, CRNA, or healthcare administration tracks — a bachelor's-level credential matters here in a way that it does not in the named Respiratory Care Therapy program.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Carrington College-Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV 65 0 65
Carrington College-Phoenix North Phoenix, AZ 53 0 53
Highline College Des Moines, WA 19 20 39
Carrington College-Pleasant Hill Campus Pleasant Hill, CA 37 0 37
Mandl School-The College of Allied Health New York, NY 34 0 34
Muskegon Community College Muskegon, MI 20 0 20
Tacoma Community College Tacoma, WA 19 0 19
Salt Lake Community College Salt Lake City, UT 17 0 17
Spokane Community College Spokane, WA 0 17 17
Delaware Technical Community College-Terry Dover, DE 16 0 16
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Physical Therapy Assistant

5,324 completions/yr

Medical/Clinical Assistant

4,799 completions/yr

Occupational Therapist Assistant

3,140 completions/yr

Pharmacy Technician/Assistant

1,189 completions/yr

Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services, Other

1,062 completions/yr

Clinical/Medical Laboratory Assistant

331 completions/yr

Speech-Language Pathology Assistant

218 completions/yr

Optometric Technician/Assistant

108 completions/yr

Considering this direction?

We've taken a hard look at the debt, earnings trajectory, and degree-level tradeoffs for the Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant field. Read our verdict before you commit.

Is Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant worth it? Read verdict
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

Is Respiratory Therapy Technician/Assistant the same as the named Respiratory Care Therapy degree?
No, and the distinction matters. The named program is CIP 51.0908 (Respiratory Care Therapy/Therapist) with about 6,344 annual completions across 414 colleges and a clear pipeline into the licensed Respiratory Therapist occupation at a $77,960 BLS median wage. This program — CIP 51.0812 — is about ten times smaller (385 completions, 26 colleges) and the only career the data packet maps is 'Health technologists and technicians, all other' at a $48,790 median, which signals the BLS does not uniformly classify these graduates as Respiratory Therapists. Some graduates do bridge into the full RT track by completing a CoARC-accredited program and sitting for the NBRC examinations; others remain in technician-tier roles. Before enrolling, ask the program directly whether it is CoARC-accredited and whether graduates qualify to sit for the NBRC CRT exam — that is the single most important question.
What credentials and licensure gate the full Respiratory Therapist career?
The National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC) administers two examinations: the Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT) is the entry-level credential, and the Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) is the advanced credential most hospitals require or strongly prefer. Forty-nine states require state licensure to practice as a respiratory therapist, and licensure is contingent on passing the NBRC examinations. To sit for the NBRC exams, you must graduate from a program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC). A non-CoARC program — even one with the same name — does not produce NBRC-eligible graduates. Specialty certifications layered on top include NPS (Neonatal/Pediatric Specialist), ACCS (Adult Critical Care Specialist), SDS (Sleep Disorders Specialist), and CPFT/RPFT (Pulmonary Function Technologist). These are how RTs move from $65K starting wages into the $90-120K specialist tier.
Why do bachelor's graduates earn $20,700 more than associate's graduates here?
The data shows a stark split: associate's completers average $45,304 at five years versus $66,034 for bachelor's completers — a roughly $20,700 gap that is much wider than the $5,400 gap seen in the named Respiratory Care Therapy program. The most likely explanation is that bachelor's-level graduates from CoARC-accredited 4-year programs more reliably reach the full Respiratory Therapist career (BLS median $77,960), while associate's graduates from this technician-tier CIP are more likely to land in the BLS 'Health technologists and technicians, all other' category at $48,790 or in adjacent DME-respiratory and pulmonary-aide roles. The gap is not a degree premium in the conventional sense — it is a credential-pathway divergence. Some bachelor's tracks here are completion programs designed for working AAS-RTs adding a baccalaureate, which biases the bachelor's wage upward.
What clinical settings actually hire graduates from this program?
Settings range broadly depending on credential: full RTs (CoARC + NBRC) work in hospital ICU, CCU, NICU, PICU, and emergency departments; pulmonary diagnostic and sleep labs; pulmonary rehabilitation programs; ground and flight transport teams (sometimes dual-credentialed with paramedic); home-health respiratory companies (Lincare, Apria, AdaptHealth, Rotech); and hyperbaric medicine. Graduates without NBRC credentials more commonly land in DME-respiratory delivery and patient education roles, pulmonary function technician positions in outpatient clinics, asthma-and-COPD educator roles (sometimes pursuing the AE-C certification), or as respiratory-care aides in hospital settings. Travel-RT agencies have offered $2,000-$4,000 per week gross during peak demand — but only to fully credentialed RRTs. The post-COVID period has permanently increased hospital investment in respiratory care, and the structural drivers (aging COPD population, NICU growth, sleep-apnea diagnosis expansion) are durable.
How is AI affecting respiratory therapy as a career?
Closed-loop oxygen titration and ventilator-management algorithms are emerging — some ICU ventilators now adjust support pressure and FiO2 automatically based on patient feedback. Routine pulmonary function test interpretation is also being augmented by software. But bedside clinical judgment, airway management decisions, code-blue response, neonatal stabilization, and patient communication remain firmly human work. RTs are physically present at the bedside, intubating, suctioning, drawing arterial blood gases, and titrating in response to clinical context that algorithms cannot read. The realistic AI read is augmentation, not replacement, especially for hospital-based critical-care RTs. The roles most exposed to AI displacement are pure-interpretation jobs (some PFT analyst positions) and routine home-respiratory documentation — both relatively peripheral to the career core.
What does the school list say about who actually runs these programs?
The top-volume schools tell a clear story. Four of the top five are Carrington College campuses (Las Vegas, Phoenix North, Pleasant Hill, plus others) — a proprietary allied-health chain. The remainder are community colleges (Highline, Muskegon, Tacoma, Salt Lake, Spokane, Delaware Tech) plus Mandl School in NYC. Highline College in Washington is notable because it offers both associate's and bachelor's tracks (19 + 20 completions). The proprietary-chain dominance is a flag worth investigating: tuition at Carrington campuses can run substantially higher than community college equivalents for similar credentials, and CoARC accreditation status varies by individual campus — not all campuses of a chain are accredited the same way. Before enrolling at any program here, check the CoARC program directory directly (coarc.com) and verify that the specific campus you would attend is currently accredited and produces NBRC-eligible graduates.
What graduate-school or career-pivot ramps does this open?
Graduates who reach the bachelor's-RT level have several upward ramps. Direct lateral pivots include Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT, doctoral, 3 years), Physician Assistant master's programs (most accept healthcare experience), and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) via a DNP — though CRNA typically requires RN licensure first, so the route runs RT bachelor's to RN bridge to CRNA-DNP. For administrative tracks, RT bachelor's to MS Health Administration or MBA opens supervisor and clinical manager roles. Within the RT field itself, NBRC's specialty examinations (NPS, ACCS, SDS) and the AE-C asthma educator certification are how staff RTs move into the $90-120K tier without leaving bedside practice. The technician-tier credential alone (without bachelor's completion + NBRC) does not open these ramps — which is the practical reason the bachelor's-vs-associate's wage split is so wide here.