Therapist Salary in Alabama: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

All three Alabama medians sit below their national figures, and the gaps do not track the medians: counselors, with the middle median of the three, have the smallest gap, and social workers, with the lowest median, the widest.

The counselor median of $47,310 is $12,040 below the national $59,350, the family therapist median of $49,990 is $16,950 below the national $66,940, and the social worker median of $41,500 is $18,780 below the national $60,280.

Family therapists still lead in Alabama, but by less than nationally: the national family therapist premium over counselors is $7,590 at the median, while in Alabama it narrows to $2,680.

The bottom two occupations swap places.

Nationally the social worker median sits $930 above the counselor median; in Alabama counselors lead social workers by $5,810.

By median, Alabama ranks 49th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish this occupation for counselors, 39th of 45 for family therapists and 50th of 51 for social workers.

Counselors are the combined occupation of the three: the row pools LPCs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, so it describes the blend, not one licence.

The Alabama median is $47,310, $12,040 below the national median of $59,350 — a 20% gap, the smallest of the three occupations on this page.

The hourly median is $22.74 against $28.53 nationally, so an hourly posting at or above $22.74 sits at or above the state median for this row.

For counselors BLS publishes no Alabama employment estimate at all, and the page flags the row accordingly; Alabama's median ranks 49th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one.

Marriage and family therapists have the highest median of Alabama's three occupations, $49,990, yet sit $16,950 below their national median of $66,940 — a 25% gap.

The hourly median is $24.03 against $32.18 nationally.

The lead over counselors is narrower here than nationally: $2,680 at the median in Alabama, against $7,590 nationally.

BLS estimates only 190 marriage and family therapists employed in Alabama, a small count, so this analysis quotes the median only; the percentile table below the section carries the page's small-sample flag, and nothing here builds on it.

Alabama's median ranks 39th of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers have the lowest Alabama median of the three, $41,500 — 31% below the national $60,280.

The middle of the distribution sits further from national than the floor: the 10th percentile of $29,370 is 26% below the national figure and the 25th percentile of $35,740 is 24% below, while the median gap is 31%.

At the top, the 75th percentile of $55,640 is 30% below the national $79,730 and the 90th percentile of $64,750 is 38% below the national $104,170, the widest of this occupation's gaps.

The hourly median is $19.95 against $28.98 nationally.

The middle half of the Alabama distribution spans $19,900, against a national band of $32,660, and the 10th-to-90th span is $35,380 against $64,430 nationally.

With an estimated 740 workers, Alabama is tied for 38th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

Start with the occupation the job would be counted in, and read the offer against that row rather than a blended number.

The Alabama hourly medians are $22.74 for counselors, $24.03 for marriage and family therapists and $19.95 for mental health and substance abuse social workers.

A counselor offer at the state median of $47,310 sits $12,040 below the national counselor median of $59,350; the same dollar figure for a social worker job would sit $5,810 above the Alabama social worker median.

A percentile is a position in the state distribution, not a pay step, so an offer at the 25th percentile says where it sits among Alabama jobs in that occupation, not a judgement about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

Alabama licenses professional counselors as the LPC, with the Associate Licensed Counselor (ALC) as the pre-licensure licence, and the counselor row pools LPCs and ALCs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors — BLS publishes no LPC-only median for Alabama.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, and Alabama licenses these therapists as the LMFT, with the LAMFTA associate tier and an intern designation below it, but OEWS does not split the row by licence stage, so it cannot say what an LAMFTA or an intern earns.

Alabama's independent clinical social work licence is the LICSW, and clinical social workers are counted either in this social worker row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $41,500 median does not describe every LICSW.

Two of the three rows on this page carry a small-data flag.

For counselors BLS publishes no Alabama employment estimate, so the $47,310 median has no published headcount behind it in this release.

For marriage and family therapists BLS estimates 190 employed in Alabama, a small count, and this page quotes that row's median only rather than building on its percentile tables.

The social worker row, with an estimated 740 workers, is the only one of the three without a flag.