The average dental hygienist salary in New Mexico is $69,390 per year. This is about $4,000 less than the national average for this position. On the other hand, the cost of living in New Mexico is slightly lower than that of the rest of the country, so residents can expect to save money on their dental care and other necessities.
Dental hygienists working in New Mexico earn an average hourly wage of $33.92 per hour. Their salaries are typically based on several factors including experience level and geographic location. Some common factors that influence dental hygienist salaries include:
- Geographic location: The more rural or remote an area is, the less likely it will be able to attract skilled professionals like dentists or dental hygienists who need to be close enough to major cities like Albuquerque or Santa Fe where they can find work opportunities at hospitals or private practices that pay higher salaries than smaller towns do.
- Years of experience: Dental hygienists who have worked for longer periods tend to get paid more than those who have just graduated from school because they’ve had time to gain more knowledge about how dentistry works as well as what types of equipment are needed.
Dental Hygienist Salary In New Mexico
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions considers the outlook for the dental hygiene field in the state to be a bright one. It reported the median 2013 dental hygienist salary in New Mexico to be $69,680. Experienced dental hygienists in the state earned $81,470 on average, while those entering the workforce averaged $48,880.
The average entry-level dental hygienist salary in New Mexico varied tremendously between workforce regions in the state.
SPONSORED LISTINGS
Featured Programs:
Penn Foster’s Dental Assistant career diploma program will teach you on-the-job skills like dental health procedures, office operations, dentistry terminology use, and more – so you can begin pursuing your career as a Dental Assistant.
Selected Campus Locations:
- Online
Selected Programs:
Ashworth College’s enables you to learn at your own pace, on your own schedule. In as few as four months, you’ll graduate with the skills to start pursuing a career as a dental administrative assistant.
Selected Campus Locations:
- Online
Selected Programs:
There was a $20,575 difference in the average salaries of entry-level dental hygienists in the northern workforce region versus those in the central part of the state:
Workforce Region
Entry-level
Median
Experienced
Central
$41656
$61350
$73570
Eastern
$56668
$72097
$80009
Northern
$62231
$77077
$88763
Southwestern
$51953
$66683
$89563
Dental Hygienist Job Growth in New Mexico
The number of dental hygienist jobs in New Mexico is projected to increase by 2.1% a year between 2012 and 2022. This rate of increase is 1.9 times greater than that projected for New Mexico occupations as a whole.
Job growth in New Mexico’s major metropolitan areas is projected to be lower than the state’s average. The exception is the Albuquerque area. The field of dental hygiene there is projected to increase 2.5% between 2012 and 2022.
An additional 226 jobs are forecast for New Mexico during this period. Half of them will be in the Albuquerque area. Thirty percent of the projected New Mexico dental hygienist jobs will be outside of the major metropolitan areas. The Farmington, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe areas combined will only produce 19.5% of the state’s new jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides 2013 New Mexico dental hygienist salary information for both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas of the state:
Area name
Employment
Hourly mean wage
Annual mean wage
Hourly median wage
Hourly 75th percentile wage
Hourly 90th percentile wage
Annual median wage
Annual 75th percentile wage
Annual 90th percentile wage
Albuquerque NM
350
30.26
62930
29.50
37.11
43.88
61350
77190
91260
Farmington NM
60
37.19
77350
37.08
41.69
44.50
77130
86720
92550
Las Cruces NM
110
34.43
71610
31.58
36.67
61.12
65690
76260
127120
Santa Fe NM
70
34.23
71190
33.16
36.25
46.89
68980
75400
97520
North and West Central New Mexico nonmetropolitan area
70
41.90
87150
44.64
51.18
55.07
92850
106460
114550
Eastern New Mexico nonmetropolitan area
200
34.73
72230
34.66
39.75
46.30
72100
82680
96310
Los Alamos County New Mexico nonmetropolitan area
30
41.80
86950
43.86
50.68
54.85
91230
105400
114080
