As the field of healthcare only continues to grow, the need for healthcare administrators does too. Healthcare administration is an important role in the healthcare industry, and many people are drawn to it because it is a rewarding career path with the ability to make a real impact in healthcare. It also comes with many benefits, including upward mobility and potentially high salaries.Â
In this guide, we’ll explore how much healthcare administrators make, salaries by city and state, some of the highest-paying healthcare administration careers, and more!
Popular Online Healthcare Leadership Programs
GCU’s RN-BSN program is tailored to meet the needs of the RN adult learner and to maximize the strengths that the working RN already possesses. Transfer up to 90 credits and earn a BSN in as little as 12 months. GCU’s online classes allow you to study at the times that work for your schedule while still enjoying a close connection with your classmates and instructor via online discussions.
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WGU’s award-winning online programs are created to help you succeed while graduating faster and with less debt. WGU is a CCNE accredited, nonprofit university offering nursing bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
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The University of Scranton offers multiple online degrees in the growing healthcare industry. The comprehensive coursework is based on real-world scenarios and is equally rigorous and rewarding. The return on investment will be as big as the change you can make in a variety of healthcare leadership roles!
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Location
As a working RN, you need a flexible, transfer-friendly program to help you save time and money as you take the next step in your nursing career. In our CCNE-accredited4
RN to BSN program, you can transfer in up to 134 credits—which is nearly 75% of program requirements. Your transfer credits can be reviewed in one business day (on average).
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Location
Prerequisite
At Liberty, you’ll benefit from 30+ years of learning, growing, adapting, and innovating for the distance learner — and more than a decade of researching the needs of the online student. You can be confident that we’ve taken the time to learn what’s important to you.
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Location
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Healthcare administrators have the potential to make substantially high salaries. A hospital CEO, for example, could make millions, while many other healthcare admin jobs can earn six-figure salaries.Â
Here is a sampling of some of the healthcare administrator salaries you might find in the field:
As a private practice office manager, you would essentially be in charge of running a medical practice for a provider. According to the BLS, a medical and health services manager makes an average salary of $110,680, although that could vary widely. A smaller office, for instance, may not earn you as high of a salary as a multi-facility one.Â
A nursing home administrator would hold a senior-level position at a nursing home, managing other people in leadership roles and working on the business end of directing the facility. Nursing home administrators or directors are one of the highest-paid healthcare administration roles. According to Salary.com, a nursing home administrator makes an average of $130,619.Â
This role could be a Nurse Manager, who oversees a particular unit or floor of the hospital, or an administrator in another department of the hospital, such as employee health or infection control. According to the BLS, medical and health service managers make an average of $110,680 per year.Â
Hospital executives encompass anyone at an executive level working in a hospital, from finance to HR to management. As an example of one type of salary in this role, ZipRecruiter reports an annual wage of over $157,532 for a hospital vice-president.Â
A health information manager has a very specialized role in the healthcare industry. In this position, you would be overseeing other health informatics specialists who are responsible for working with medical records and data. According to the BLS, computer and information systems managers make an average of over $169,510 per year.Â
Obviously, a hospital CEO is at the very top of the healthcare administration tier and is in charge of an entire healthcare facility. According to the Economic Research Institute, a hospital director makes an average of over $374,000 every year, although annual wages can easily reach over 1 million dollars for large hospital operations.Â
>> Related: 10 Highest Paying Healthcare Administration Jobs
Popular Online Healthcare Leadership Programs
GCU’s RN-BSN program is tailored to meet the needs of the RN adult learner and to maximize the strengths that the working RN already possesses. Transfer up to 90 credits and earn a BSN in as little as 12 months. GCU’s online classes allow you to study at the times that work for your schedule while still enjoying a close connection with your classmates and instructor via online discussions.
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
WGU’s award-winning online programs are created to help you succeed while graduating faster and with less debt. WGU is a CCNE accredited, nonprofit university offering nursing bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
The University of Scranton offers multiple online degrees in the growing healthcare industry. The comprehensive coursework is based on real-world scenarios and is equally rigorous and rewarding. The return on investment will be as big as the change you can make in a variety of healthcare leadership roles!
Accreditation
Location
As a working RN, you need a flexible, transfer-friendly program to help you save time and money as you take the next step in your nursing career. In our CCNE-accredited4
RN to BSN program, you can transfer in up to 134 credits—which is nearly 75% of program requirements. Your transfer credits can be reviewed in one business day (on average).
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
At Liberty, you’ll benefit from 30+ years of learning, growing, adapting, and innovating for the distance learner — and more than a decade of researching the needs of the online student. You can be confident that we’ve taken the time to learn what’s important to you.
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
One of the biggest factors in salary for healthcare administrators is location. Here’s what you can expect to earn in each state according to the BLS.Â
State | Annual Salary | Monthly Pay | Weekly Pay | Hourly Wage |
---|---|---|---|---|
Oregon | $45,661 | $3,805 | $878 | $21.95 |
Alaska | $45,622 | $3,801 | $877 | $21.93 |
North Dakota | $45,475 | $3,789 | $874 | $21.86 |
Massachusetts | $45,283 | $3,773 | $870 | $21.77 |
Hawaii | $44,539 | $3,711 | $856 | $21.41 |
Washington | $44,399 | $3,699 | $853 | $21.35 |
Nevada | $43,137 | $3,594 | $829 | $20.74 |
South Dakota | $42,979 | $3,581 | $826 | $20.66 |
Colorado | $42,922 | $3,576 | $825 | $20.64 |
Rhode Island | $42,292 | $3,524 | $813 | $20.33 |
Connecticut | $42,142 | $3,511 | $810 | $20.26 |
New York | $41,508 | $3,459 | $798 | $19.96 |
Mississippi | $41,230 | $3,435 | $792 | $19.82 |
Vermont | $40,496 | $3,374 | $778 | $19.47 |
Delaware | $40,440 | $3,370 | $777 | $19.44 |
Virginia | $39,894 | $3,324 | $767 | $19.18 |
Illinois | $39,715 | $3,309 | $763 | $19.09 |
Maryland | $39,175 | $3,264 | $753 | $18.83 |
Kansas | $38,795 | $3,232 | $746 | $18.65 |
Nebraska | $38,366 | $3,197 | $737 | $18.45 |
California | $38,339 | $3,194 | $737 | $18.43 |
New Jersey | $38,060 | $3,171 | $731 | $18.30 |
Missouri | $38,057 | $3,171 | $731 | $18.30 |
Pennsylvania | $38,026 | $3,168 | $731 | $18.28 |
Wisconsin | $37,722 | $3,143 | $725 | $18.14 |
South Carolina | $37,714 | $3,142 | $725 | $18.13 |
Maine | $37,476 | $3,123 | $720 | $18.02 |
Oklahoma | $37,154 | $3,096 | $714 | $17.86 |
New Hampshire | $36,962 | $3,080 | $710 | $17.77 |
North Carolina | $36,935 | $3,077 | $710 | $17.76 |
Idaho | $36,651 | $3,054 | $704 | $17.62 |
Minnesota | $36,468 | $3,039 | $701 | $17.53 |
Wyoming | $36,407 | $3,033 | $700 | $17.50 |
Texas | $36,382 | $3,031 | $699 | $17.49 |
New Mexico | $36,226 | $3,018 | $696 | $17.42 |
Indiana | $35,948 | $2,995 | $691 | $17.28 |
Kentucky | $35,813 | $2,984 | $688 | $17.22 |
Michigan | $35,540 | $2,961 | $683 | $17.09 |
Ohio | $35,439 | $2,953 | $681 | $17.04 |
Arizona | $35,205 | $2,933 | $677 | $16.93 |
Iowa | $34,886 | $2,907 | $670 | $16.77 |
Montana | $34,675 | $2,889 | $666 | $16.67 |
Alabama | $34,242 | $2,853 | $658 | $16.46 |
Arkansas | $33,889 | $2,824 | $651 | $16.29 |
Utah | $33,873 | $2,822 | $651 | $16.29 |
Tennessee | $33,833 | $2,819 | $650 | $16.27 |
Georgia | $31,899 | $2,658 | $613 | $15.34 |
Louisiana | $31,840 | $2,653 | $612 | $15.31 |
West Virginia | $29,368 | $2,447 | $564 | $14.12 |
Florida | $28,231 | $2,352 | $542 | $13.57 |
Source Zip Recruiter
The BLS lists the following cities as the highest-paid for healthcare administrators:Â
Metropolitan area | Hourly mean wage | Annual mean wage |
Trenton, NJ | $ 93.14 | $ 193,730 |
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | $ 89.69 | $ 186,560 |
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | $ 86.22 | $ 179,330 |
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $ 84.92 | $ 176,640 |
Napa, CA | $ 83.04 | $ 172,730 |
Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH | $ 79.78 | $ 165,940 |
Danbury, CT | $ 79.76 | $ 165,910 |
Vallejo-Fairfield, CA | $ 79.32 | $ 164,990 |
California-Lexington Park, MD | $ 78.48 | $ 163,250 |
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $ 77.44 | $ 161,070 |
According to the BLS, the highest-paid healthcare administrators work for the government, while the lowest-paid work in nursing and residential care facilities. The BLS lists place of occupation and salary as follows for medical and health services managers:
- Hospitals: Average salary of $128,740
- Government: Average salary of $125,590
- Outpatient care centers: Average salary of $104,710
- Physician offices: Average salary of $102,360
- Nursing and residential care facilities: Average salary of $97,490
Although on average, you can expect to earn a reasonable salary as a healthcare administrator, there are always ways that you can increase your salary. The best way to increase your salary in any role is to increase your value by adding additional skills to your resume. You can do this by:
- Pursuing advanced education: For instance, if you are a nurse looking to become a department manager, you can pursue your MSN or MBA in order to gain more managerial and leadership skills.
- Finding a mentor: If there is someone in your field that you aspire to be like, speak up! Ask them if they would be willing to take you on as a mentor so you can learn from them.Â
- Learning advanced skills: Even if you don’t pursue another separate degree, you can add technical skills or certifications to your resume that can help increase your value as an administrator.Â
- Get involved: Whether it’s a new field you’d like to move into or an advancement in your current role, it can help to get involved in new ways. That might mean volunteering to supervise the team leadership conference or signing up for more community events–there are many different options you could pursue depending on your current role and where you would like to advance to in order to raise your salary.Â
>> Show Me Online Healthcare Administration Programs
If you’d like to pursue a career in healthcare administration, it can help to have an idea of where you would like to go with your carer. For instance, if you’d like to eventually be a nurse manager, you’ll need to go the RN-BSN-MSN route. However, your career path for a health informatics manager will look much different.Â
If you aren’t entirely sure where you’d like your career to take you, however, don’t worry––you can still earn a basic degree that can open up many doors for you as a healthcare administrator. For instance, you can focus on pursuing a Bachelors and Masters degree in:
- Public Health
- Health Administration
- Health Management
- Business
Along with the right degree, you’ll also need to gain experience in your field and it can’t hurt to earn additional certification along the way either.Â
For example, the BLS lists several different certifications that can be helpful for health administrators, including:
- Certificate in medical management from the Professional Association of Health Care Office Management
- Health information management certification from the American Health Information Management Association
- Certified Nursing Home Administrator and Certified Assisted Living Administrator specializations through the American College of Health Care Administrators.
Popular Online Healthcare Leadership Programs
GCU’s RN-BSN program is tailored to meet the needs of the RN adult learner and to maximize the strengths that the working RN already possesses. Transfer up to 90 credits and earn a BSN in as little as 12 months. GCU’s online classes allow you to study at the times that work for your schedule while still enjoying a close connection with your classmates and instructor via online discussions.
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
WGU’s award-winning online programs are created to help you succeed while graduating faster and with less debt. WGU is a CCNE accredited, nonprofit university offering nursing bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
The University of Scranton offers multiple online degrees in the growing healthcare industry. The comprehensive coursework is based on real-world scenarios and is equally rigorous and rewarding. The return on investment will be as big as the change you can make in a variety of healthcare leadership roles!
Accreditation
Location
As a working RN, you need a flexible, transfer-friendly program to help you save time and money as you take the next step in your nursing career. In our CCNE-accredited4
RN to BSN program, you can transfer in up to 134 credits—which is nearly 75% of program requirements. Your transfer credits can be reviewed in one business day (on average).
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
At Liberty, you’ll benefit from 30+ years of learning, growing, adapting, and innovating for the distance learner — and more than a decade of researching the needs of the online student. You can be confident that we’ve taken the time to learn what’s important to you.
Accreditation
Location
Prerequisite
As you pursue a career in healthcare administration, you’ll want to stay equipped with tools to turn to when you need them. Nurse.org has plenty of resources and guides to help you along the way:Â