Louisiana healthcare administrators enjoyed a median annual salary in 2020 of $94,800 according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At the 90th percentile, the most experienced could bring in $162,350 a year.
Health care managers in the state deserve more and are likely to get it, however. The United Health Care Foundation ranked Louisiana last in the nation for state population health, and the CDC showed the state with an above-average rate of drug overdose deaths as of 2019. Those are challenges that only the best and the brightest are going to be able to meet, and they will get the chance in the coming decade: a recent grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health is supporting new collaboration on effective policy development.
The state has an above-average rate of employment in the health care sector, forming about 13 percent of the overall workforce. According to the Louisiana Hospital Association, that’s nearly 300,000 individuals in the industry as of 2018, working in more than 13,000 locations and being paid nearly $13 billion each year. In 2020 the state’s 5,140 medical and health service managers accounted for more than half a billion dollars of that.
Factors Driving Job Growth for Healthcare Administrators in Louisiana
The Louisiana Department of Labor Workforce Commission estimates that positions for healthcare administrators will grow at a 7.8 percent rate through the decade leading up to 2028. That will bring 40 openings a year to the state, through a combination of new positions and attrition in existing jobs.
Many of those new hires are being driven by continuing facility openings and expansions, such as the 2019 opening of the Acadiana Treatment Center in Sunset, and an increase in the number of healthcare administrator jobs statewide in hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Healthcare Administrator Salaries in Louisiana According to Location
High numbers of jobs and high paychecks go hand-in-hand in Louisiana’s largest urban areas, with New Orleans employing the largest number of medical administrators, at slightly more than 1,400, and offering the second-highest median salary in the state at $104,620
New Orleans-Metairie
- 25th percentile: $85,810
- Median: $104,620
- 90th percentile: $183,190
Baton Rouge
- 25th percentile: $77,530
- Median: $95,740
- 90th percentile: $177,490
Shreveport-Bossier City
- 25th percentile: $62,260
- Median: $82,140
- 90th percentile: $137,310
Lafayette
- 25th percentile: $70,730
- Median: $88,460
- 90th percentile: $141,030
Although median salaries tend to be higher in urban parts of the state, the nonmetropolitan areas of Louisiana can actually offer higher wages, with the Northeast nonmetropolitan area offering the highest median salary and the second-highest 90th percentile salary, $106,680 and $171,290, respectively.
2020 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary figures for Medical and Health Services Managers.
Job growth projections sourced from the Louisianan Department of Labor Workforce Commission and published in the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Long Term Occupational Projections (2018-2028) database – https://projectionscentral.com/Projections/LongTerm.
Salary figures and job market projections represent state data, not school-specific information.
Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed August 2021.