Biology laboratory assistants work within laboratories and assist scientists with experiments, equipment maintenance, and research. They may also work with college professors, assisting with lectures, assignments, or evaluation of student projects.

Some of the functions that they perform in this capacity include setting up laboratory equipment, logging experiment details and results, assisting scientists or professors, cleaning up the lab and equipment, and writing laboratory reports. Essential skills required to excel in this position include analytical, logical thinking, organizational, and attention to detail. A high level of education is necessary before gaining employment. The minimum requirement to be successful at this profession is a bachelor's degree in a science-related discipline, but employers usually prefer candidates with a master's degree. Biology laboratory assistants receive comprehensive on-the-job training that includes learning how to use specific equipment and getting up to speed about ongoing or future experiments.

The average hourly pay for the position is $25.53, which amounts to $53,099 annually. The career is expected to grow in the following years and create new opportunities across the United States.

What Does a Biology Laboratory Assistant Do

There are certain skills that many biology laboratory assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed observational skills, technical skills and analytical skills.

Learn more about what a Biology Laboratory Assistant does

How To Become a Biology Laboratory Assistant

If you're interested in becoming a biology laboratory assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 70.7% of biology laboratory assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.0% of biology laboratory assistants have master's degrees. Even though most biology laboratory assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Biology Laboratory Assistant
Top Biology Laboratory Assistant Jobs Near You

Biology Laboratory Assistant Career Paths

Average Salary for a Biology Laboratory Assistant

Biology Laboratory Assistants in America make an average salary of $34,240 per year or $16 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $52,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $22,000 per year.
Average Biology Laboratory Assistant Salary
$34,240 Yearly
$16.46 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Biology Laboratory Assistant

There are several types of biology laboratory assistant, including:

Research Fellow

Role:

As the name implies, as a Research Fellow, you will be conducting research and analysis of comprehensive results, literature, and data. You will be supervising research assistants and recruiting study participants for specific studies.

For the educational requirement, a Research Fellow needs to have a doctorate relevant to the discipline and should have published papers that are peer-reviewed. As a Research Fellow, you can be supervised or independent.

The top skills Research Fellow applicants include in their resumes include Molecular Biology, Data Analysis, Cell Culture, Research Projects, and Ph.D. You might want to brush up your knowledge on these things and make sure you are knowledgeable in the field you will be applying to.

You can earn an average annual salary of $49,120 with a job growth rate of 8%. You can also explore other careers like being a Research Scientist, a Scientist, and a Senior Scientist.

  • Average Salary: $53,823
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Research Technician

Role:

If you have a passion for science and enjoy the challenges of solving scientific research, analysis, and investigation, then you might consider a career as a research technician.

Generally, a research technician or research scientist is a person who helps scientists with their research and experiments in a laboratory. Research technician is a job that offers you job satisfaction, the flexibility of work, high salaries, variable tasks, and a stable employment market.

A technician position may bring a satisfying role as the key member of a laboratory or may act as a stepping stone to a Ph.D., medical, or other job opportunities.
  • Average Salary: $43,034
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Research Scientist

Role:

A research scientist is a professional who gathers information by performing both theoretical and experimental research in a specific scientific field. A research scientist can work in many different areas, such as medicine, natural science, computer science, and social science.

Research scientists collect data, interpret the results of experiments, and form hypotheses in an attempt to answer questions about the natural world or the man-made world, depending on their field. They can be found working in government agencies, as well as private companies.

Some research scientists also work at universities where they not only conduct experiments but also teach the student population about a particular branch of science. No matter who they work for, research scientists spend many of their working hours in laboratories, and other related facilities, to perform experiments and further study their field of science.

Common skills of a research scientist include strong analytical and research skills, critical thinking, and organizational and communications skills. They also usually have a number of hard skills, involving specific kinds of computer software, and devices used for experiments and data collection.

To become a research scientist, you must obtain at least a bachelor's degree in a specific field of science, such as biology, chemistry, or computer science. Many research scientists also have master's degrees in their specialized area of science, and those that teach tend to have PhDs in their field.
  • Average Salary: $89,998
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Biology Laboratory Assistant Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active biology laboratory assistant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where biology laboratory assistants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Biology Laboratory Assistant Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California3,303$40,790
2Massachusetts1,679$55,896
3New York1,570$50,739
4Texas1,502$31,939
5Florida1,480$29,935
6Pennsylvania1,355$41,394
7Illinois940$40,063
8Ohio935$37,833
9Michigan889$38,776
10New Jersey823$51,250
11North Carolina753$31,096
12Washington713$39,186
13Minnesota696$37,312
14Maryland685$43,751
15Virginia569$38,622
16Colorado564$32,499
17Tennessee551$36,677
18Arizona529$33,933
19Georgia517$36,920
20Wisconsin493$45,499
21Missouri459$30,955
22Indiana453$28,513
23Oregon393$33,202
24Iowa356$36,119
25South Carolina309$31,207
26Utah282$25,182
27Kansas274$29,965
28Alabama263$26,285
29Connecticut257$52,216
30Louisiana241$31,815
31Kentucky233$31,353
32Arkansas213$35,892
33Oklahoma188$34,538
34New Hampshire185$50,159
35Nevada168$31,766
36New Mexico162$37,051
37Nebraska158$34,490
38Idaho145$31,267
39Mississippi138$31,831
40West Virginia134$35,286
41South Dakota134$27,787
42Maine112$37,090
43Montana111$27,308
44Alaska102$42,605
45Rhode Island94$45,542
46Vermont94$33,586
47North Dakota84$27,859
48Hawaii73$41,450
49Delaware67$40,646
50Wyoming50$35,218

Biology Laboratory Assistant Education

Biology Laboratory Assistant Majors

52.8 %

Biology Laboratory Assistant Degrees

Bachelors

70.7 %

Associate

14.7 %

High School Diploma

6.5 %

Top Colleges for Biology Laboratory Assistants

1. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology
Nursing
Environmental Science
Psychology

2. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,740

Enrollment

5,567

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Biology
Public Health
Nursing
Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology
Business

3. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology
Environmental Science
Chemistry
Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology

4. Cornell University

Ithaca, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,188

Enrollment

15,105

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Biology
Business
Environmental Science
Chemistry
Psychology

5. University of Florida

Gainesville, FL • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,381

Enrollment

34,564

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Biology
Business
Psychology
Liberal Arts
Environmental Science

6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,987

Enrollment

18,946

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology
Psychology
Environmental Science
Nursing

7. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology
Environmental Science
Public Health
Ecology, Population Biology, And Epidemiology

8. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology
Public Health
Chemistry
Psychology

9. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$59,430

Enrollment

8,216

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology
Nursing
Public Health
Environmental Science

10. Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,816

Enrollment

6,840

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Nursing
Biology
Business
Public Health
Biochemistry, Biophysics, Molecular Biology

Top Skills For a Biology Laboratory Assistant

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 37.7% of biology laboratory assistants listed lab equipment on their resume, but soft skills such as observational skills and technical skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Biology Laboratory Assistant Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Biology Laboratory Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Biology Laboratory Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Biology Laboratory Assistant Resume
Biology Laboratory Assistant Resume
Biology Laboratory Assistant Resume
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Biology Laboratory Assistant Resume

Biology Laboratory Assistant Demographics

Biology Laboratory Assistant Gender Distribution

Female
Female
63%
Male
Male
37%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among biology laboratory assistants, 63.3% of them are women, while 36.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among biology laboratory assistants is White, which makes up 50.3% of all biology laboratory assistants.

  • The most common foreign language among biology laboratory assistants is Spanish at 41.1%.

Online Courses For Biology Laboratory Assistant That You May Like

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Chemical biology is a burgeoning field that has rapidly risen to prominence. This surge of interest has been fuelled by chemical biology’s applicability to understanding critical processes in live cells or model organisms in real time. This success has arisen because chemical biology straddles a nexus between chemistry, biology, and physics. Thus, chemical biology can harness rapid chemistry to observe or perturb biological processes, that are in turn reported using physical assays, all in an...

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2. Network Analysis in Systems Biology

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An introduction to data integration and statistical methods used in contemporary Systems Biology, Bioinformatics and Systems Pharmacology research. The course covers methods to process raw data from genome-wide mRNA expression studies (microarrays and RNA-seq) including data normalization, differential expression, clustering, enrichment analysis and network construction. The course contains practical tutorials for using tools and setting up pipelines, but it also covers the mathematics behind...

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3. Biology Everywhere

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Where have you experienced biology today? Journey through the science of life through the lens of our daily lives. This specialization is intended to bridge the gap between traditional biology classes and the practical biology knowledge needed in the real world. In each module, a different biological concept is examined and related to some real-world issues or experiences in an effort to demonstrate why the science of life matters to your everyday experience. Content includes subjects typically...

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Best States For a Biology Laboratory Assistant

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a biology laboratory assistant. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Biology laboratory assistants make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $55,896. Whereas in Connecticut and New Jersey, they would average $52,216 and $51,250, respectively. While biology laboratory assistants would only make an average of $50,739 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Massachusetts

Total Biology Laboratory Assistant Jobs: 1,679
Highest 10% Earn:
$87,000
Location Quotient:
1.96

2. New York

Total Biology Laboratory Assistant Jobs: 1,570
Highest 10% Earn:
$81,000
Location Quotient:
1.31

3. New Hampshire

Total Biology Laboratory Assistant Jobs: 185
Highest 10% Earn:
$78,000
Location Quotient:
1.13
Full List Of Best States For Biology Laboratory Assistants

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Top Biology Laboratory Assistant Employers

Most Common Employers For Biology Laboratory Assistant

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Massachusetts General Hospital$60,056$28.8711
2USDA$54,362$26.148
3Point Loma Nazarene University$46,089$22.165
4University of Puget Sound$44,429$21.367
5Elon University$42,925$20.645
6Methodist University$40,989$19.716
7The State of Oregon$36,925$17.756
8Delaware County Christian School$36,354$17.485
9Boston University$34,167$16.435
10University of California Press$33,323$16.027