Therapist Salary in Georgia: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Georgia's three medians do not cluster; they split three ways.

The counselor median of $58,960 is $390 below the national $59,350 — essentially at it — while the family therapist median of $91,550 is $24,610 above the national $66,940 and the social worker median of $52,030 is $8,250 below the national $60,280.

The national family therapist premium over counselors, $7,590 at the median, widens to $32,590 in Georgia.

The bottom two occupations swap places.

Nationally the social worker median sits $930 above the counselor median; in Georgia counselors lead social workers by $6,930.

By median, Georgia ranks 32nd of the 51 jurisdictions that publish this occupation for counselors, 3rd of 45 for family therapists and 30th of 51 for social workers.

For Georgia counselors the gap to the national distribution is smallest at the median and widens in both directions, most toward the top.

The median of $58,960 is $390 below the national median, a 1% gap; the 25th percentile of $46,340 is $760 below (2%), and the 10th percentile of $37,390 is $1,550 below (4%).

At the top the gap is wider still: the 75th percentile of $72,500 is $4,030 below the national figure (5%), and the 90th percentile of $90,980 is $6,610 below (7%).

The middle half of the Georgia distribution spans $26,160, against a national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $53,590 against $58,650.

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

Georgia's median ranks 32nd of 51, and BLS estimates 9,600 counselors employed in the state, 18th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate.

Georgia marriage and family therapists have a median of $91,550, $24,610 above the national median of $66,940 — a 37% gap, the only one of the three Georgia rows above its national figure.

The hourly median is $44.02 against $32.18 nationally.

The lead over the other two Georgia rows is wide as well: $32,590 over the counselor median and $39,520 over the social worker median, against national cross-occupation gaps of $7,590 and $6,660 at the median.

Georgia's median ranks 3rd of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

But BLS publishes no Georgia employment estimate for it, so this page flags the row and quotes the median only; the percentile table below carries the flag, and nothing here builds on it.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Georgia have a median of $52,030, $8,250 below the national $60,280 — a 14% gap.

The gap is narrowest just below the middle, at the 25th percentile: $45,090 against the national $47,070, 4% below.

Both ends of the distribution sit further from national than that: the 10th percentile of $32,990 is 17% below the national figure, and the 90th percentile of $83,500 is 20% below the national $104,170 — a gap of $20,670.

In between, the 75th percentile of $72,490 is 9% below the national $79,730, closer to national than the Georgia median itself.

The middle half of the Georgia distribution spans $27,400, against a national band of $32,660, and the 10th-to-90th span is $50,510 against $64,430.

BLS estimates 1,330 social workers employed in Georgia, 28th 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 Georgia hourly medians are $28.35 for counselors, $44.02 for marriage and family therapists and $25.02 for mental health and substance abuse social workers.

An annual counselor offer of $58,960 sits exactly at the Georgia median for the row, $390 below the national counselor median of $59,350; the same dollar figure offered for a social worker job would sit $6,930 above the Georgia social worker median of $52,030.

A family therapy posting can be read against its median only — the row's $91,550 and $44.02 hourly are the figures this page can stand behind, because no employment estimate is published behind its percentiles.

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

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

Georgia licenses professional counselors as the LPC, with the Associate Professional Counselor (APC) as the associate-level licence, and the counselor row pools LPCs and APCs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors — BLS publishes no LPC-only median for Georgia.

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

On the social work side Georgia licenses the LMSW and the LCSW, and 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 $52,030 median does not describe every LCSW.

One of the three rows on this page carries a data flag: marriage and family therapists.

For that occupation BLS publishes a Georgia median and percentile table but no employment estimate, so the page flags the row, and this analysis quotes its median only rather than building on its percentiles.

The other two rows publish employment estimates in this release — 9,600 counselors and 1,330 mental health and substance abuse social workers — and carry no flag.