The Datum Report

Occupation 3111 · Associate professional occupations

Laboratory technicians

Half of full-time laboratory technicians in the UK earn more than £28,210 a year, and half earn less.

Laboratory technicians carry out routine laboratory tests and checks and perform a variety of technical support functions requiring the application of established or prescribed procedures and techniques to assist scientists with their research, development, analysis and testing, and to verify the physical, chemical and other characteristics of materials and products.

How people enter it

Entry varies from employer to employer. Entrants usually possess a degree, although entry is also possible with A-levels, GCSEs/S grades, an appropriate BTEC/SQA award or HNC/HND. Professional qualifications, NVQs/SVQs at various levels, and apprenticeships are available in some areas of work. Good eyesight, and in some cases, normal colour vision are also required.

What the work involves

• sets up and assists with the construction and the development of scientific apparatus for experimental, demonstration or other purposes
• prepares organic and inorganic material for examination and stains and fixes slides for microscope work
• operates and services specialised scientific equipment, undertakes prescribed measurements and analyses and ensures that sterile conditions necessary for some equipment are maintained
• records and collates data obtained from experimental work and documents all work carried out
• maintains and rotates stock and supplies
• disposes of chemical and biological waste safely
• keeps up to date with new technical developments

Also called

Assistant scientist (laboratory) · Associate practitioner (laboratory) · Cytoscreener · Hospital technician · Laboratory technician · Scientific technician

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for laboratory technicians, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 10 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Building and civil engineering technicians · Electrical and electronics technicians · Engineering technicians · Planning, process and production technicians · Quality assurance technicians · Science, engineering and production technicians n.e.c.