Dental Lab Technician Salary in 2026: What Dental Lab Technicians Earn
25th percentile
$40,420
Median (50th)
$49,610
75th percentile
$62,070
90th percentile
$76,940
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (SOC 51-9081, Dental Laboratory Technicians), May 2025 — pulled from the BLS Public Data API v2 on 2026-09-07. Source of record: docs/oews-2025-state-dental.md.
Dental Lab Technician Compensation Structure
Compensation for dental lab techniciansvaries significantly by employment type. Here's how the most common structures break down:
National median
About $23.85 an hour (BLS OEWS, SOC 51-9081, May 2025). BLS publishes the hourly median directly, and it matches the annual figure at 2,080 hours.
$49,610 / yr
Typical range (10th–90th pct)
Most dental lab technicians fall within this band (BLS).
$36,660–$76,940
National mean
Above the median, which is what a long upper tail looks like — the top decile pulls the average up.
$54,290 / yr
Highest-Paying States for Dental Lab Technicians
Ranked among states whose BLS estimate rests on a usable sample; 5 states with small or imprecise samples are left out of the ranking and shown in the full table below.
What Affects Dental Lab Technician Salary?
The biggest drivers of dental lab technician compensation are setting (private practice vs. DSO vs. public health), location (urban markets pay 10–20% above national average), experience level, and employment structure (W2 vs. temp/1099).
See the full dental lab technician career guide →Dental Lab Technician Salary by State
BLS publishes a dental laboratory technician wage estimate for 46 of the 51 jurisdictions. There is no published series for Alaska, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Vermont or Wyoming — genuine non-publication for a 34,410-person occupation, not an omission here, and not a statement that the job does not exist there.