Increasing attention to healthy lifestyles creates job growth for health promoters.
A health promoter, also called a health promotion specialist or a health educator, provides instruction and encourages healthy lifestyles, typically in a community organization or at a health care facility. The specialist gathers information about the community population, develops and implements suitable programs, and monitors progress. Salaries for health promoters have a very wide range.
Salary Range
The average work salary for a health promoter as of May 2009 was $23.59 per hour, or $49,060 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those in the middle 50 percent of the earnings scale were making $33,270 to $60,970 annually. The bottom 10 percent had annual salaries of $26,120 and below, a noteworthy difference from the top 10 percent who were earning $79,290 and higher.
Types of Employment
A large number of health promoters work for hospitals, earning an average salary of $56,560 per year in 2009. Local government is another primary employer, paying $45,880 on average. Health promoters find employment with individual and family service organizations and in outpatient care centers, which pay these professionals about $41,000 on average as of 2009.
States
The highest average salary by state for health promoters in 2009 was in Maryland, where these workers earned $38.96 per hour on average, or $81,040 per year. The District of Columbia was close behind, at an average of $79,600 per year. Health promoters in Georgia were earning $69,930 and in Rhode Island $62,440 annually on average.
Metro Areas
Some metropolitan areas have even higher average pay rates for health promoters. In the Maryland metro area of Bethesda-Frederick-Gaithersburg, health promoters were earning $94,880 per year on average in 2009, ranking them at the top of average salary rates for these workers. Salisbury, Maryland, was second at $86,310, followed by Waterbury, Connecticut, at $83,520. Two other high-paying metro areas were the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia area, at $75,790, and San Francisco, California, at $75,450.
Outlook
Employment in this occupation should experience fast growth of 18 percent from 2008 through 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rising cost of health care is driving this job growth, as companies and communities work to lower expenses by promoting healthy lifestyles.
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