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Average Salaries for Arizona Licensed Opticians

Average Salaries for Arizona Licensed Opticians thumbnail
Opticians help patients select functional and fashionable frames and lenses.

Although opticians can't give eye examinations or prescribe corrective lenses to patients, they're essential to helping patients find the glasses or contacts that are the best fit for their faces and lifestyles. For many opticians, this means juggling a knowledge of utilitarian issues such as coatings and lens weights with fashion concerns. About 990 dispensing opticians work in Arizona as of May 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  1. Average Salary

    • The median annual salary for dispensing opticians in Arizona was $31,500 as of May 2009, according to the BLS. The 50 percent of licensed opticians with the most average salaries in the state earn between $27,840 and $37,850, although 10 percent earned $44,410 or more each year. Many dispensing opticians receive an hourly wage rather than a weekly or monthly salary; the average hourly salary for opticians in the state was $15.68.

    Salaries by City

    • Opticians who work in some of Arizona's largest metropolitan areas earn salaries that are noticeably higher than the statewide average reported by the BLS. Those who work in Phoenix earn median annual salaries of $42,253, with half earning between $36,991 and $45,921 as of January 2011, according to Salary.com. Those in Mesa receive median annual salaries of $42,134, with a salary range very similar to that of Phoenix. In Flagstaff, dispensing opticians earn a median annual salary of $38,134, with half receiving between $33,385 and $41,445 each year.

    Comparison to National Salaries

    • Nationwide, the median salary for licensed dispensing opticians is $42,797 as of January 2011, according to Salary.com, with half of all in the profession receiving salaries between $37,460 and $46,512. The statewide median salary reported by the BLS is 73 percent of the nationwide prevailing salary for opticians. Licensed opticians in Phoenix and Mesa earn salaries that are nearly exactly equal with national averages for their position.

    Licensing Requirements

    • The Arizona State Board of Dispensing Opticians regulates optician quality in the state. To qualify for an optician's license, applicants must have at least three years of work experience as an optician in the last six years and be a high school graduate. Applicants must also successfully take the American Board of Opticianry and the National Contact Lens Examiners test. Licenses from other states may be used to secure a license in Arizona.

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  • Photo Credit eyeglasses image by timur1970 from Fotolia.com

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