What Wages Should We Propose?
It's fine to say that the wage proposals on the table aren't good enough, but what wages should we ask for? How do we know what's good enough?
Based on the cost of living in the Portland area, the wages lab workers receive at other labs, and the wages that nurses and hospital techs receive, I think these approximate figures are entirely reasonable:
MLS: $45 - $65/hr MLT: $36 - $56/hr Lab Assistant/Phlebotomist: $25 - $30/hr
Why those numbers? Where did those numbers come from? I'll tell you:
MLS
I feel that healthcare workers should be able to afford to settle down in the communities they serve. In other words, they should be able to buy a home. Lab workers are so necessary to public health that communities should welcome us (would they rather we left for a cheaper city?)
The median cost of a starter home in Portland is about $400,000 - depending on who you ask and what they think a starter home is. The typical first time home buyer puts 9% down. Plug those numbers into a mortgage calculator, keeping in mind that the mortgage payment should be 30% of income or less, and to afford that house you should be grossing $110,000 - $120,000/year, which is $55 - $65/hr. People usually buy their first home in their late 30s, although back in the 1980s people usually bought their first home in their late 20s (we've become poorer).
I don't see any reason why we should aim to be poorer... so if you're buying in your late 20s, supposing you went to college soon after high school, you should be making $55/hr about five years into your career, more or less. Which puts that $55/hr figure right in the middle of a 10-year step scale. I just went $10 out in either direction. If the range looks too wide, you could pull the ends in... say $47.50 - $62.50/hr.
It's a bit more than Kaiser MLSs are making now, but awfully close to what imaging techs are making.
MLSs shouldn't start at less than $42, since that's the average cost of a one bedroom apartment. A full time healthcare worker with a Bachelor's degree should be able to afford that.
MLT
$36/hr is the average cost to afford a studio apartment, and again, I think a degreed healthcare worker working full time should be able to afford their own place. Alternately, if they shared a place with a roommate or a working partner they would be able to save extra money or enjoy some extra comforts, or take care of a child. To be honest, I don't have a good feel for how much an MLT should make. Normally, you wouldn't expect someone with an Associate's degree to make a lot of money, but that's not true in healthcare! More discussion below.
Lab Assistant/Phlebotomist
$25/hr is the approximate cost for someone to evenly split a two bedroom apartment with a working roommate. To my mind, that makes it the absolute bare minimum we should be paying anybody working in healthcare. Shandi Owens, former phlebotomist, explains it much more eloquently:
"Phlebotomists deserve compensation that reflects the responsibility, skill, and risk inherent in their work. A wage of $20-$23 an hour is no longer reasonable in today's economy, especially for healthcare professionals who are the first critical step in diagnosing illness and guiding medical care.
Phlebotomists work directly with blood, a recognized biohazard, and face daily risks including needlestick injuries and exposure to bloodborne pathogens. The accuracy of laboratory results-and ultimately patient outcomes-begins with the phlebotomist. Without properly collected specimens, diagnoses are delayed or compromised. This is not entry-level work; it requires training, precision, and constant vigilance.
It is deeply concerning that fast-casual restaurants are offering starting wages comparable to or higher than those of phlebotomists. When a healthcare professional responsible for patient safety, infection control, and diagnostic accuracy earns the same-or less-than a non-medical position, it signals a serious imbalance in how essential roles are valued.
At $20 an hour, many phlebotomists simply cannot afford to survive, let alone thrive. This wage disparity directly contributes to the ongoing shortage in the field. If compensation does not increase to a realistic range-at minimum $25-$30 an hour-phlebotomy will continue to lose skilled workers, and these responsibilities will increasingly fall to already overextended nursing staff.
I ultimately chose to resign from my position because it is no longer financially sustainable. Until wages reflect the true value and risk of this profession, the shortage will only worsen, and patient care will suffer as a result."
Well said. Lab assistants don't (usually) work directly with patients, but they do have to master a highly specialized set of skills and knowledge, much of which seems arbitrary without the educational background that techs have; they are still exposed to biohazards (as all of us are); and every tech knows how much difference a competent lab assistant makes to keeping the lab running smoothly and efficiently. It is in everyone's interest - lab workers, patients, and the employer - to retain an experienced lab worker as long as possible, and to do that they have to be paid appropriately.
I picked $30 as the top end just because it's a nice round number. But AFSCME's latest contract with OHSU sets the minimum OHSU wage at $25, meaning that lab assistants and phlebotomists will be paid at least that much. Kaiser's lab assistants and phlebotomists are paid even more right now. If anything, this range is still too low.
Aren't Those Wages Too High, Though?
No, not at all! In fact, they're still much lower than they should be!
Every full time healthcare worker should be able to afford their own place, even the ones without degrees. We're not hiring teenagers to flip burgers; these are adults performing a critical public service and they ought to be self-sufficient. Realistically, lab assistants and phlebotomists should start at minimum $36/hr, since that's the cost of a studio. MLTs have similar qualifications to nurses and imaging techs and should be paid similarly. MLSs, with their required Bachelor's degrees, should be paid a premium over MLTs, which means we should be getting nurse pay or better. And that might look something more like this:
MLS: $60 - $90/hr MLT: $45 - $65/hr Lab Assistant/Phlebotomist: $36 - $56/hr
That's where our pay should really be. The only reason I've suggested less is because if I proposed these numbers everyone would get sticker shock and think I wasn't serious - not just LabCorp, but even my own coworkwers, who are too accustomed to believing that they're not worth much because we've been letting our employers rip us off for so long.
But LabCorp Doesn't Want To Pay That Much...
So what?
We didn't start a union to make LabCorp happy. We know LabCorp doesn't want to pay us this much. Hell, if they could have their way, they wouldn't pay us at all! The point of this contract campaign is not to leave LabCorp satisfied, it is to name our price and require them to pay it. There's no reason why we have to preemptively lower our rates to appeal to them, or meet them in the middle between a fair wage and the garbage they're offering now. They are the ones who are being wildly unrealistic by wanting to pay so little.
When I go to the store and they've jacked up the price of milk or eggs or whatever, I don't get to decide that those goods should be cheaper because I want them to be. They cost what they cost whether I like it or not. Either I pay what they cost or I leave empty handed. We need to start understanding that as long as we bargain collectively we can set the price for our work. LabCorp can pay it, whether they like it or not, or we can shut their labs down.
The numbers I proposed at the top of this article are the compromise. In fact, we should hike them all up a bit to set expectations, so that the compromise numbers will seem reasonable when we come down to them...
The MLT Problem
Related to all of this is a problem in our field. We all know about it, although MLSs don't like to talk about it much. The problem is this:
"If an MLT can do the same work as an MLS, why should MLSs get paid so much more? Shouldn't they get MLT pay?"
MLSs hate this question because the last thing they want is for anybody to agree with the premise and decide to cut their wages. If it does come up, they have a ready list of arguments for why they should be paid more:
They had to spend more time and money earning their degree.
They have a more robust education which reflects in the quality of their work (particularly with respect to recognizing unusual pathologies or tests or validating questionable test results).
They're allowed to perform work that MLTs are not allowed to perform. (Oddly enough, these limits are almost always set by lab administration - in other words, it's not that MLTs can't perform that work, it's that labs don't allow them to do it. However, it could also be argued that this is prima facie evidence that even lab admin recognizes an essential difference.)
But the best answer to this question is the one I've already given: MLTs should be paid what MLSs are paid now, or better! Rather than worrying about having their pay cut, MLSs should view winning fair wages for MLTs as protecting their own wages as well.
What Do You Think?
Of course, I'm not in charge here. These numbers are only suggestions. Do you agree? Disagree? What do you think we should be paid, or how much are you willing to fight for? Talk to your coworkers about it!