Dental Laboratory Technician salary in Rapid City

At a verified median of $45,800, dental laboratory technicians in Rapid City earn modestly below the U.S. median of $49,610 — a gap of about 8%. Among the 377 metro areas where the BLS reports dental laboratory technician pay, Rapid City ranks 265th.

Compared with South Dakota as a whole (median $48,370), Rapid City pays dental laboratory technicians about 5% less than the statewide median. Local demand, cost of labor, and the mix of practices drive most of that difference.

The pay range is wide: the lowest-paid tenth of dental laboratory technicians in this metro area earn around $37,860, while the top tenth earn $65,990 or more — a spread of about $28,130. That gap reflects experience, practice setting, and local demand more than any single factor, so an individual offer can sit well above or below the midpoint.

The BLS counts roughly 50 dental laboratory technicians employed in Rapid City — a measure of how deep the local job market is for the role.

Within Rapid City, a dental laboratory technician earns about 3.5× less than a general dentist, about 2.0× less than a dental hygienist and about 1.0× less than a dental assistant ($158,140, $91,890, $47,850 respectively) — a quick way to see where the role sits in the local dental pay ladder.