Crime laboratory technician vs senior laboratory technician

The differences between crime laboratory technicians and senior laboratory technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a crime laboratory technician, becoming a senior laboratory technician takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a senior laboratory technician has an average salary of $48,530, which is higher than the $32,220 average annual salary of a crime laboratory technician.

The top three skills for a crime laboratory technician include physical evidence, law enforcement agencies and crime scene evidence. The most important skills for a senior laboratory technician are lab equipment, patients, and research projects.

Crime laboratory technician vs senior laboratory technician overview

	Crime Laboratory Technician	Senior Laboratory Technician
Yearly salary	$32,220	$48,530
Hourly rate	$15.49	$23.33
Growth rate	11%	9%
Number of jobs	39,023	63,876
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age	38	44
Years of experience	4	12

Crime laboratory technician vs senior laboratory technician salary

Crime laboratory technicians and senior laboratory technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Crime Laboratory Technician	Senior Laboratory Technician
Average salary	$32,220	$48,530
Salary range	Between $20,000 And $49,000	Between $34,000 And $67,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	California
Best paying company	-	Genentech
Best paying industry	-	Manufacturing

Differences between crime laboratory technician and senior laboratory technician education

There are a few differences between a crime laboratory technician and a senior laboratory technician in terms of educational background:

	Crime Laboratory Technician	Senior Laboratory Technician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common major	Criminal Justice	Biology
Most common college	Howard University	New York University

Crime laboratory technician vs senior laboratory technician demographics

Here are the differences between crime laboratory technicians' and senior laboratory technicians' demographics:

	Crime Laboratory Technician	Senior Laboratory Technician
Average age	38	44
Gender ratio	Male, 38.1% Female, 61.9%	Male, 58.6% Female, 41.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.8% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, 11.4% White, 62.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0%	Black or African American, 10.5% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 12.0% White, 54.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between crime laboratory technician and senior laboratory technician duties and responsibilities

Crime laboratory technician example responsibilities.

Lead aerobic, anaerobic and UV light testing, chemical residue testing and centrifuge to separate chemicals from water.
Ensure FDLE's evidence submissionguidelines are adhered to.
Maintain and operate laboratory equipment and commendably troubleshoot and resolve an assortment of laboratory testing analyzers and perform diverse chemical tests.
Ascertain stat orders that come from E.D.
Used documentation tools including tape measures and diagramming templates to map the scene.

Senior laboratory technician example responsibilities.

Lead aerobic, anaerobic and UV light testing, chemical residue testing and centrifuge to separate chemicals from water.
Operate a binary distillation column using LabView to separate a mixture of methanol and water.
Provide and sign certificate of analyses for wet chemistry and microbiology.
Perform CFU-blast, CFU-C, CFU-D, CFU-S assays.
Create raw material library on FTIR.
Perform manual titration, including testing bacteria and other water tests.

Crime laboratory technician vs senior laboratory technician skills

Common crime laboratory technician skills

Physical Evidence, 62%
Law Enforcement Agencies, 15%
Crime Scene Evidence, 9%
Criminal Cases, 9%
Lims, 5%

Common senior laboratory technician skills

Lab Equipment, 9%
Patients, 8%
Research Projects, 5%
Cell Culture, 4%
Safety Procedures, 4%
Molecular Biology, 4%

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Crime Laboratory Technician
Crime Laboratory Technician vs Senior Laboratory Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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