# Dental hygienist pay by metro in Florida
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach carries the largest dental hygienist jobs estimate in Florida, 3,460 workers in the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release, and it also carries the lowest median of the three biggest metros, $82,780. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater reports $95,870 on an employment estimate of 1,670. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford reports $92,560 on 1,490. Three metros, three genuinely different wage pictures, all from the same federal series.
The big three, side by side
| Metro | Median annual wage | Mean annual wage | BLS jobs estimate | Licensed hygienists (DOH band) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | $82,780 | $87,190 | 3,460 | More than 2,500 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | $95,870 | $91,900 | 1,670 | More than 2,500 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | $92,560 | $85,320 | 1,490 | 1,001–2,500 |
Wages in the table are U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS estimates, May 2025. The licensed bands come from the Florida Department of Health licensure file pulled on August 3, 2026.
The mean moves when the tails of a distribution move. In Miami the mean sits $4,410 above the median, which says a minority of high wages in the mix lifts the average. In Orlando the mean sits $7,240 below the median, and in Tampa $3,970 below it, the opposite tilt. Neither direction says anything about a specific job. It says the shape of the wage distribution differs from metro to metro even when the midpoints sit within a few thousand dollars of each other.
Across the full table the widest gaps run in both directions. On the high side, Miami's mean sits $4,410 above its median, Sebring's $4,020 above, and Homosassa Springs' $3,260 above. On the low side, Cape Coral-Fort Myers shows a mean $7,780 under its median, Orlando $7,240 under, and Jacksonville $7,140 under. Nine of the 22 metros close with the mean above the median and thirteen with it below. The direction of the gap is a fact worth knowing about a local market before quoting its midpoint as if it were the whole story.
The other nineteen, ranked
| Metro | Median annual wage | Mean annual wage | Licensed hygienists (DOH band) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naples-Marco Island | $100,140 | $100,760 | 251–500 |
| North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota | $95,930 | $95,310 | 501–1,000 |
| Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | $95,400 | $91,000 | 501–1,000 |
| Jacksonville | $94,960 | $87,820 | 1,001–2,500 |
| Punta Gorda | $94,740 | $90,740 | 101–250 |
| Sebastian-Vero Beach-West Vero Corridor | $94,490 | $95,160 | 101–250 |
| Port St. Lucie | $94,060 | $92,160 | 251–500 |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven | $93,080 | $89,170 | 251–500 |
| Wildwood-The Villages | $92,900 | $88,160 | 26–50 |
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers | $91,120 | $83,340 | 501–1,000 |
| Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin | $88,030 | $87,850 | 101–250 |
| Panama City-Panama City Beach | $87,360 | $86,130 | 101–250 |
| Gainesville | $84,750 | $86,080 | 251–500 |
| Ocala | $83,260 | $83,190 | 251–500 |
| Homosassa Springs | $81,810 | $85,070 | 51–100 |
| Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent | $81,780 | $84,090 | 251–500 |
| Sebring | $80,590 | $84,610 | 51–100 |
| Tallahassee | $79,520 | $81,850 | 251–500 |
| Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach | $79,050 | $81,300 | 251–500 |
Same two sources as above: wage columns from BLS OEWS, May 2025; license bands from the Florida DOH licensure file, pulled August 3, 2026.
What the ranking shows
The top of the table belongs to the Gulf coast. Naples-Marco Island leads among the 22 metros at $100,140, North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota follows at $95,930, then Tampa at $95,870, Punta Gorda at $94,740 and Cape Coral-Fort Myers at $91,120. Jacksonville, at $94,960, is the highest median outside that cluster. The Atlantic side splits: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville reports $95,400, Sebastian-Vero Beach $94,490 and Port St. Lucie $94,060, while Miami, the largest metro of all, reports $82,780. The bottom of the table gathers inland and north Florida, with Ocala at $83,260, Gainesville at $84,750, Pensacola at $81,780, Tallahassee at $79,520 and Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach at $79,050, the lowest median among the 22 metros. These are observations about the published numbers. The dataset carries no cost of living adjustment and no explanation for any of the gaps.
Small metros, small estimates
Some of these metros have very small employment estimates. In the May 2025 release the jobs estimate is 40 in Sebring, 50 in Homosassa Springs, 70 in Punta Gorda, 80 in Wildwood-The Villages and 100 in Panama City-Panama City Beach. A median built on a survey estimate that small can move a great deal between annual releases. Treat a single-year median in these metros as a signal about the level, not the level itself, and watch how it behaves across releases before drawing conclusions from a $3,000 move.
The caution reaches into the top of the table. Punta Gorda's $94,740 median rests on a jobs estimate of 70 and Sebastian-Vero Beach's $94,490 on 140. High medians on small employment estimates are still the published numbers, and they belong in the ranking, but a ranking that mixes a 3,460-worker metro with a 70-worker one is comparing estimates of very different weight.
The pool behind the payroll
The licensure file tells the supply side. The August 3, 2026 pull shows the two metros with more than 2,500 licensed hygienists, Miami and Tampa, sitting $13,090 apart in median. Orlando and Jacksonville hold 1,001–2,500 each. North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Cape Coral-Fort Myers hold 501–1,000 each. Eight metros, from Naples-Marco Island to Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, hold between 251 and 500, and the rest sit below that. Worth noticing: the metros crowding the top of the wage table, Naples-Marco Island at 251–500 and Punta Gorda at 101–250, hold some of the smallest licensed pools in the state. High median, thin local bench. The file does not say why, and neither do we.
A license is not a job. The licensure file counts who holds a Florida license, not who works a chair in a given metro, so the band belongs next to the BLS jobs estimate rather than in competition with it.
Where the metro line falls
A metro area is a group of counties, and both sources draw their lines independently. BLS locates a job where the office sits, so a hygienist who lives in one metro and practices in another shows up in the office's metro, not the home one. The licensure file locates a licensee by county, and our bands roll those counties up into metros. Someone working near a metro boundary can therefore appear in the wage column of one row and the license band of a neighboring one. Neither source is wrong; they measure from different ends of the same commute, and the tables above keep them in separate columns for exactly that reason.
Where each metro gets its own page
Every row in both tables expands into a metro page under the Florida hygienist salary hub, and the license density tool breaks the same August 3, 2026 licensure pull into county bands for anyone mapping supply at a finer grain than the metro line.