Working in the health sector in Miami does not guarantee making ends meet. An analysis by Telemundo 51 as part of the series "The Price of Paradise" reveals that entry-level positions in the healthcare field—pharmacy technician and medical assistant—pay between six and seven dollars less per hour than what is necessary to cover basic needs in Miami-Dade.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) defines a living wage as the hourly rate that an individual must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time or 2080 hours per year.
According to their calculations, a single adult without children needs at least $25.98 per hour to make ends meet in the county. Data from the digital job market ZipRecruiter shows that the average salary for a pharmacy technician is $18.43 and for a medical assistant is $19.02, both clearly below the threshold.
Housing is the hardest hit. MIT estimates that a single adult in Miami-Dade needs to allocate about $1,837 per month just for that expense. For a pharmacy technician, who earns around $3,195 gross per month, this represents nearly 57% of their salary before taxes. For a medical assistant, with a monthly income of about $3,297, the proportion is around 56%, not including electricity, water, food, or transportation.
«The medical assistant, pharmacy technician, and patient care technician do not have a very well-paid salary here in Miami,» says Frank Castro, Director of Academic Operations at FVI School of Nursing and Technology. «When all the debts come together, all the bills, yes, it's difficult. Every billFPL bill, the water bill... when they add up, yes, of course it's difficult.»
A pharmacy technician student named Georlenys Mogollón revealed that she combines morning classes with a night job at a store earning 14 dollars an hour. Upon graduating, she hopes to earn 17 dollars an hour as a starting salary —still below the MIT threshold.
As the level of preparation increases, the equation improves. A registered nurse earns an average of $40.40 per hour (about $84,000 annually), which reduces the burden of housing to 26% of the gross monthly salary. However, recent graduates do not always reach that average.
"The average in Miami is between 30 and 36 dollars for new nurses like me," says Marcos Bandera, a registered nurse who has accumulated nearly 55,000 dollars in student debt. His verdict is nuanced: "In Miami, you can live as a nurse. I would say: it depends. If you want a healthy standard of living, with some financial freedom, I believe it is possible."
At the highest levels, an advanced practice nurse averages $124,620 annually, while a physician earns around $208,000. However, these incomes come with debts that range from $55,000 for nurses to between $250,000 and $500,000 for physicians.
This situation weighs heavily on the thousands of Cubans who arrive in Miami with medical degrees and must go through the process of validating their credentials, which can take years. In the meantime, they work in the lowest-paying jobs. In May, it was reported that more than 300 Cuban doctors were living in a migratory limbo that prevented them from working and practicing their profession, with nearly 40% of them located in South Florida.
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