What Should I Pay My Dental Staff?

With COVID we have seen the hourly pay rates of dental professionals on rise. Mainly due to the shortage of applicants and workers in the field.

Now… I beg of you! Please don’t shoot the messenger. And we are not saying you have to pay your team these rates.

However, based on the numbers from our site, here are the rates of what each dental position is currently making in the various regions of California.

Registered Dental Hygienist:

Average hourly wage of a dental hygienist is around $50/hr*.

Major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco are seeing an average wage of $57/hr.

*When hygienist works 24 hours or less a week.

Registered Dental Assistants:

Average hourly wage of Registered Dental Assistant (RDA) is $24/hr.

Major Cities are paying an average of $26/hr.

Dental Assistants:

The hourly wage for Dental Assistants averages around $18/hr.

Major cities are paying around $20/hr.

Front Office Personnel:

Averages around $22/hr.

Office Managers:

Averages around $25/hr.

Major cities pay around $30/hr.

There are several factors of your job that could increase or decrease how much you should be paying.

If you offer full benefits like Healthcare, Vision, and Paid-Time-Off, withguaranteedhours and/OR live in an area where there are a surplus of candidates you could offer lower pay.

If your practice is in an area that is very expensive to live, causing your employees to make a longer commute, you will need to offer higher pay and a fantastic work environment to find and keep employees.

Hope this serves as a reference should you be unsure of what to pay your employees.

If you need help finding Dental Assistants, check out this post with 6 Tips!