1. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
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.
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.
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.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a biology laboratory assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as laboratory assistant, progress to a title such as laboratory technician and then eventually end up with the title senior scientist.
What Am I Worth?
There are several types of biology laboratory assistant, including:
Role:
Role:
Role:
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.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 3,303 | $40,790 |
2 | Massachusetts | 1,679 | $55,896 |
3 | New York | 1,570 | $50,739 |
4 | Texas | 1,502 | $31,939 |
5 | Florida | 1,480 | $29,935 |
6 | Pennsylvania | 1,355 | $41,394 |
7 | Illinois | 940 | $40,063 |
8 | Ohio | 935 | $37,833 |
9 | Michigan | 889 | $38,776 |
10 | New Jersey | 823 | $51,250 |
11 | North Carolina | 753 | $31,096 |
12 | Washington | 713 | $39,186 |
13 | Minnesota | 696 | $37,312 |
14 | Maryland | 685 | $43,751 |
15 | Virginia | 569 | $38,622 |
16 | Colorado | 564 | $32,499 |
17 | Tennessee | 551 | $36,677 |
18 | Arizona | 529 | $33,933 |
19 | Georgia | 517 | $36,920 |
20 | Wisconsin | 493 | $45,499 |
21 | Missouri | 459 | $30,955 |
22 | Indiana | 453 | $28,513 |
23 | Oregon | 393 | $33,202 |
24 | Iowa | 356 | $36,119 |
25 | South Carolina | 309 | $31,207 |
26 | Utah | 282 | $25,182 |
27 | Kansas | 274 | $29,965 |
28 | Alabama | 263 | $26,285 |
29 | Connecticut | 257 | $52,216 |
30 | Louisiana | 241 | $31,815 |
31 | Kentucky | 233 | $31,353 |
32 | Arkansas | 213 | $35,892 |
33 | Oklahoma | 188 | $34,538 |
34 | New Hampshire | 185 | $50,159 |
35 | Nevada | 168 | $31,766 |
36 | New Mexico | 162 | $37,051 |
37 | Nebraska | 158 | $34,490 |
38 | Idaho | 145 | $31,267 |
39 | Mississippi | 138 | $31,831 |
40 | West Virginia | 134 | $35,286 |
41 | South Dakota | 134 | $27,787 |
42 | Maine | 112 | $37,090 |
43 | Montana | 111 | $27,308 |
44 | Alaska | 102 | $42,605 |
45 | Rhode Island | 94 | $45,542 |
46 | Vermont | 94 | $33,586 |
47 | North Dakota | 84 | $27,859 |
48 | Hawaii | 73 | $41,450 |
49 | Delaware | 67 | $40,646 |
50 | Wyoming | 50 | $35,218 |
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
Baltimore, MD • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,740
Enrollment
5,567
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,262
Enrollment
30,079
Ithaca, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,188
Enrollment
15,105
Gainesville, FL • Private
In-State Tuition
$6,381
Enrollment
34,564
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,987
Enrollment
18,946
Cambridge, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$50,420
Enrollment
7,582
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$59,430
Enrollment
8,216
Nashville, TN • Private
In-State Tuition
$49,816
Enrollment
6,840
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.
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.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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See More on CourseraSome 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
$55,896
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$50,739
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$50,159
Avg. Salary
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Massachusetts General Hospital | $60,056 | $28.87 | 11 |
2 | USDA | $54,362 | $26.14 | 8 |
3 | Point Loma Nazarene University | $46,089 | $22.16 | 5 |
4 | University of Puget Sound | $44,429 | $21.36 | 7 |
5 | Elon University | $42,925 | $20.64 | 5 |
6 | Methodist University | $40,989 | $19.71 | 6 |
7 | The State of Oregon | $36,925 | $17.75 | 6 |
8 | Delaware County Christian School | $36,354 | $17.48 | 5 |
9 | Boston University | $34,167 | $16.43 | 5 |
10 | University of California Press | $33,323 | $16.02 | 7 |