Therapist Salary in Alaska: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, the three Alaska medians do not move together.

The counselor median of $80,770 is $21,420 above the national $59,350, while the family therapist median of $60,010 is $6,930 below the national $66,940 and the social worker median of $56,710 is $3,570 below the national $60,280.

The order reverses as a result.

Nationally, family therapists lead counselors by $7,590 at the median; in Alaska, counselors lead family therapists by $20,760, or 35%, and lead social workers by $24,060, or 42%.

The family therapist and social worker medians sit $3,300 apart, both closer to their national figures than the counselor row is to its own.

By median, the counselor row ranks 1st of the 51 jurisdictions that publish the occupation.

Alaska's counselor row sits above the national distribution at every published percentile, and the percentage gap is widest at the bottom.

The 10th percentile of $58,240 is 50% above the national $38,940 and the 25th percentile of $65,710 is 40% above the national $47,100; the median of $80,770 is 36% above; the 75th percentile of $97,960 is 28% above the national $76,530; and the 90th percentile of $114,650 is 17% above the national $97,590.

In dollar terms the gap runs from $19,300 at the 10th percentile to $17,060 at the 90th, passing $21,420 at the median.

The middle half of the Alaska distribution spans $32,250, slightly wider than the national band of $29,430, while the 10th-to-90th span of $56,410 is slightly narrower than the national $58,650.

BLS estimates 1,290 counselors employed, enough that the row carries no small-sample flag, and by median it ranks 1st of the 51 jurisdictions that publish the occupation.

This is a combined occupation, so the figures describe every kind of counselor it pools, not one licence.

Marriage and family therapists in Alaska had a median of $60,010, 10% below the national median of $66,940, and their hourly median of $28.85 sits $3.33 below the national $32.18.

The Alaska median ranks 29th of the 45 jurisdictions that publish a median for this occupation.

The estimate rests on a small count: BLS puts employment at 60, 40th of the 40 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for the occupation, so the page flags this row as a small sample and the analysis here leans on the median and the hourly median alone.

Read against the state's other rows, the family therapist median sits $20,760 below the counselor median and $3,300 above the social worker median.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Alaska had a median of $56,710, 6% below the national median of $60,280, and their hourly median of $27.26 sits $1.72 below the national $28.98.

The Alaska median ranks 26th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median for this occupation.

The count behind it is small: BLS estimates 250 employed, 47th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate, so the page flags this row as a small sample and the analysis here leans on the median and the hourly median alone.

Of the three Alaska rows, this is the narrowest gap to national: $3,570, against $6,930 for family therapists and $21,420 for counselors.

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

The Alaska hourly medians are $38.83 for counselors, $28.85 for family therapists and $27.26 for mental health and substance abuse social workers.

A counselor offer at the Alaska median of $80,770 sits $21,420 above the national counselor median; the same dollar figure set against the family therapist row would sit $20,760 above that occupation's Alaska median.

For the two flagged occupations, the median is the figure to read and the small count behind it is the caution.

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 Alaska jobs in that occupation, not a judgement about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools licensed professional counselors with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no counselor-licence-only median for Alaska.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Alaska licenses to practice marital and family therapy under a two-tier scheme that includes the marital and family therapy associate title, but OEWS does not split it by licence stage, so it cannot say what an associate earns.

Clinical social workers holding the LCSW are counted either in this social worker row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $56,710 median does not describe every LCSW.

Two of Alaska's three rows are small samples.

BLS estimates employment of 60 marriage and family therapists and 250 mental health and substance abuse social workers — both below the small-sample threshold the page applies — against 1,290 counselors.

The page flags both tables, and the analysis above leans on the flagged occupations' medians alone; their tail percentiles are printed in the tables for completeness but are not built on here.