DENTAL ASSISTANT STARTING PAY QUESTIONS

Hello,

I am currently in dental assisting school and would like to hear other people perspectives and opinions.

I am paying 4k for tuition, (I know you don’t NEED school to become a CDA but I tried for a year for get hired at every office possible who had willing to train posts and they didn’t select me).

I am also doing an unpaid internship which at the end of the program I will have over 160 hours of work experience, a letter of recommendation from a dentist in the office, I also will be a CDA and have radiology cert and cpr cert.

Now when asking other about this, they said since I am just starting out I can expect 18-20$

With everything I’ve stated, if they were to just hire someone off the street, they wouldn’t have all that experience and certifications. So even though I am newer, I still have more education and experience then someone needing to be trained from square one.

So my question is, how much can I expect to make for my first position and how much is too high to ask for. I live in Colorado. And I do not see myself accepting less than 24$ starting because I need to be able to make a living also and it is expensive here. And from what I hear there is a high demand currently for DA.

I don’t think 24$ is unreasonable considering fast food workers are now making 20$ an hr without any schooling or certifications! (No shade to them) but we put in a lot to learn how to be a d.a and we deserve a livable wage.

If you all could comment your current pay, or opinions on this I would appreciate it!

Thank you for reading