The federal wage data has no separate line for veterinary imaging work: BLS publishes one occupation code for all veterinary technicians (SOC 29-2056) — national median $47,380 a year, or $22.78 an hour, in the May 2025 release — and NAVTA's surveys report no imaging-specific pay either.
What the record does show is where imaging-adjacent pay sits: specialty practice and the VTS credential run highest, state medians spread from $61,270 to $35,530, and the six-figure human sonographer salaries belong to a different profession.
What do veterinary ultrasound and radiology techs make per hour and per year?
Start with the honest framing: the wage data we checked has no imaging line.
BLS publishes one occupation code for all veterinary technicians — SOC 29-2056 — and we found no wage series in it split by clinical setting or modality, so ultrasound, radiography and CT/MRI work all price inside the one occupation; the splits BLS does publish are by industry, not by what kind of medicine a hospital practices.
Inside that code, the national median was $47,380 a year, or $22.78 an hour (BLS OEWS May 2025).
The spread runs from $35,710 at the 10th percentile to $63,180 at the 90th annually — $17.17 to $30.38 hourly — and that range contains imaging-heavy technicians and general-practice technicians alike.
The full occupation picture, including what moves pay, is on our vet tech salary page.
Two more labeled reference points frame the question from other angles.
NAVTA's 2024 Demographic Survey (n=1,404, fielded November 26–December 31, 2024) put average gross income at $53,759 and the average hourly rate at $32.89 — self-reported averages across NAVTA-reached technicians that run above BLS medians.
And on VeterinaryHires (October 6, 2026), technician listings stating hourly pay had an employer median of $24.50, with the middle half offering $23.50–$30.50 — advertised pay, all settings, not imaging-only.
Where you work moves the number more than the modality does.
State medians for the occupation run from $61,270 in the District of Columbia and $60,630 in California down to $35,530 in Louisiana — a state effect rather than an imaging effect, since every one of those figures covers all settings.
Human sonographer salaries are a different profession's numbers
Diagnostic medical sonographers had a median annual wage of $96,590 and radiologic technologists $80,110 (BLS OEWS May 2025) — but those are human-medicine occupations, BLS codes 29-2032 and 29-2034, different occupations from veterinary imaging techs. Veterinary ultrasound and radiography are duties inside the veterinary technician occupation, one federal code with a $47,380 median. Compare the careers if you like — just don't read one salary into the other.
How imaging pay compares with general practice
The direct comparison can't be sourced.
The BLS data we checked has no setting split to referee it, NAVTA's 2022 practice-type chart has no imaging category and its 2024 survey reported no imaging-specific pay — so we found no published imaging-versus-GP figure anywhere in the data we checked.
Treat that as an absence in the surveys, not a measured pay gap.
The nearest labeled proxy is specialty practice.
NAVTA's 2022 survey had credentialed technicians in specialty practice averaging $30.10 an hour (median $26) — the highest of the clinical practice types in its chart, and the closest row this research found to the imaging-heavy roles in this page's title, which sit in the referral setting: ultrasound, CT and MRI studies done alongside the specialists who order them.
The federal table can't split the difference, because almost the whole occupation is one industry to BLS: 116,050 of 129,140 employed technicians work in the veterinary services industry, at a median of $47,170 — a table that lumps general practice, emergency hospitals and specialty referral centers together.
Two cautions travel with the proxy: it is one self-reported survey, one year, credentialed technicians only — and it prices the setting, not the modality, so our sources carry no figure for a radiography-heavy role in a general hospital either.
Where imaging-adjacent roles rank across the whole occupation is the question highest-paying vet tech jobs answers, and what the specialty setting is like day to day is covered in Specialty and Referral Hospital Tech Roles.
Differentials, on-call and overtime
For imaging work specifically, our research found nothing differential-shaped published: no NAVTA imaging category to carry an evening, weekend or on-call figure and no BLS series to price one, so any percentage you see quoted for imaging differentials has no basis in the sources we checked.
The same absence covers overtime — no source we checked prices what after-hours study coverage adds to a base rate.
The terms still belong in your evaluation, because they're the part of an imaging offer this page can't price for you.
Where a role includes extended hours, weekend rotations or on-call coverage for after-hours studies, those terms are whatever the employer sets — no published rate prices them in the sources we checked.
The practical move is to build your own single number: take the base hourly rate, ask which shifts carry a differential and how it's expressed, then price your realistically scheduled share of evening, weekend and on-call work on top.
Get the terms in writing before you accept — a differential that isn't stated is a differential you can't verify.
The mechanics — what a differential is, how one interacts with overtime, and the on-call terms to confirm before signing — are laid out in ER, Overnight and On-Call Differentials for Vet Techs.
Credentials and VTS: what measurably raises imaging pay
The clearest measured gradient is the credential ladder, not the modality.
In NAVTA's 2022 survey, technicians with no credential averaged $18.60 an hour, credentialed technicians $26.80, and VTS holders $31.80 — and 2022 remains the latest VTS-specific figure NAVTA has published; the 2024 survey did not repeat it.
One scope note before reading that ladder as an imaging premium: NAVTA reports only an all-VTS average, so we have no published pay premium for VTS (Diagnostic Imaging) to cite — any quoted imaging-academy number has no sourced basis we can find.
The imaging-specific structure above the base credential is the specialty route itself.
VTS (Diagnostic Imaging) breaks down what the imaging academy requires, and what each step of the ladder is measured to pay is the VTS pay question, taken in full.
Below that sits the skill path the pay structure rests on: how ultrasound proficiency is actually built, and what credentialing does and doesn't cover, is the ultrasound technician guide's subject, and the rung below VTS is quantified in Credentialed vs Non-Credentialed Vet Tech Pay Gap.
Finding imaging and radiology vet tech jobs on the board
Open vet tech jobs on the board and read the postings that mention imaging against the numbers above.
Screen for the things this page couldn't source for you: which modalities the role actually covers — radiography only, ultrasound, CT or MRI — whether ultrasound case volume is mentored, whether a credential is required, and whether pay is posted at all.
For calibration, use the board's all-settings figures: the technician snapshot we publish isn't split by modality, so there's no imaging-only posted-pay median in it.
The $24.50 all-settings employer median — middle half $23.50–$30.50, across 354 employers and 670 listings stating hourly pay, October 6, 2026 — is the closest posted-pay anchor available.
Weight each offer against what this page gives you numbers for: your state's median for the occupation and where your credential sits on the ladder.
Then get the differential and on-call terms, which no source above can price for you, in writing.
Reading this from the other side of the desk?
The employer-side guide to hiring a veterinary technician covers what practices screen for — useful whether you're the applicant or the one deciding.