Respiratory therapists are below average when it comes to happiness.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, respiratory therapists rate their career happiness 2.9 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 26% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy respiratory therapists are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Medical appliance technician | 2.9 | $45k |
| Occupational therapist | 2.9 | $86k |
| Medical laboratory technician | 2.9 | $31k |
| Radiologic technologist | 2.9 | $61k |
| Hospitalist | 2.9 | $201k |
| Respiratory therapist | 2.9 | $62k |
| Ophthalmic medical technician | 2.9 | $37k |
| Psychiatric aide | 2.9 | $29k |
| Audiologist | 2.9 | $79k |
| Optician | 2.9 | $38k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are respiratory therapists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do respiratory therapists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as respiratory therapists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are respiratory therapist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are respiratory therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Are respiratory therapists happy with their salary?
Respiratory therapists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most respiratory therapists having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked respiratory therapists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
230 respiratory therapists
15% of respiratory therapists rated their compensation 5 stars
29% of respiratory therapists rated their compensation 4 stars
32% of respiratory therapists rated their compensation 3 stars
12% of respiratory therapists rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of respiratory therapists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do respiratory therapists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, respiratory therapists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.3/5. Unlike many careers, respiratory therapists have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become respiratory therapists.
We asked respiratory therapists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
231 respiratory therapists
22% of respiratory therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
29% of respiratory therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
21% of respiratory therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
16% of respiratory therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
13% of respiratory therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as respiratory therapists?
Respiratory therapists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.9/5. The majority of respiratory therapists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked respiratory therapists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.9 out of 5 stars
245 respiratory therapists
32% of respiratory therapists rated their career fit 5 stars
38% of respiratory therapists rated their career fit 4 stars
19% of respiratory therapists rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of respiratory therapists rated their career fit 2 stars
2% of respiratory therapists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a respiratory therapist’s work environment?
As a whole, respiratory therapists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.4/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked respiratory therapists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
244 respiratory therapists
19% of respiratory therapists rated their work environment 5 stars
31% of respiratory therapists rated their work environment 4 stars
27% of respiratory therapists rated their work environment 3 stars
16% of respiratory therapists rated their work environment 2 stars
7% of respiratory therapists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are respiratory therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Former respiratory therapists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.2/5. Most respiratory therapists are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked respiratory therapists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
246 respiratory therapists
16% of respiratory therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
28% of respiratory therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of respiratory therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
19% of respiratory therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
11% of respiratory therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars