Staff surgical technologists earned a median annual wage of $62,830 in May 2024, per BLS. Travel contracts are currently averaging about $1,913 per week, which would annualize near $99,476 if you never stopped working, and nobody never stops working. Weekly rate is the only number that compares honestly across contracts.
Pay data current as of March 2026
Vivian's national listings put the travel surgical tech average around $1,913 per week, with typical hourly rates near $42 and top posted rates reaching $56. Most contracts cluster between $1,700 and $2,300 per week. Think in bands, not in one number.
For comparison, Vivian's late-2024 research put travel surgical techs at roughly $1,860 per week against a staff average of roughly $1,324 per week from hourly pay. Travel wins the week. Staff wins the year, the benefits, and the predictability.
This is the part most travelers get backward. They chase the state and ignore the room. Vivian's late-2024 specialty benchmarks:
Travel rates move constantly, so treat any state list as a snapshot, not a strategy. Alaska is currently averaging about $2,582 per week. Oregon listings are running roughly $2,224 to $2,518. New York averages about $1,932 statewide, slightly above national, with some cities higher. Connecticut, Wisconsin, Idaho, Vermont, and Massachusetts also appeared in Vivian's recent top-paying set.
California is the cautionary tale. Its current travel average sits near $1,685 per week, below the national travel average, even though California is one of the top-paying states for permanent staff techs in BLS wage data. Travel pay prices contract demand, not staff wage reputation. Do not assume the two track together.
The pattern I see in perioperative placement is that facilities pay for speed, not tenure. A traveler who walks into a CVOR room, takes a case with a thirty-minute orientation, and needs nothing from the charge nurse is worth more to that facility than someone with more total years and a general background. That is why the specialty premium is real and the experience premium is indirect. Rates reward what you can do on day one, not what your resume says you have done.
On a weekly basis, consistently yes. Recent research showed travelers averaging roughly $1,860 per week against roughly $1,324 for staff. Annually the gap narrows, because contracts end, assignments have gaps, and staff roles carry benefits and paid time off that weekly rate does not include.
CVOR carries the clearest published premium, around $2,119 per week against a general travel average near $1,860. Surgical first assistant contracts run higher still at roughly $2,273, but that is a separate role with its own credentialing path, not a step up from scrubbing.
Probably not by much on any single contract. Travel CST rates run about $1,919 per week, nearly identical to the broader travel average. The value is access: more eligible contracts, fewer state-line barriers, and a compliance packet agencies can process without exceptions.
Rarely. State averages move faster than you can relocate, and California proves a state can pay staff techs well while paying travelers below the national average. Specialty depth travels with you. A state premium does not.
Most surgical technologists work in hospitals, with smaller shares in outpatient centers and physicians' offices. The travel market mirrors that concentration, so hospital ORs and specialty service lines carry the most options and the strongest rates. The hospital-versus-ASC tradeoff matters more for schedule than for weekly pay.