Therapist Salary in Idaho: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, Idaho's three medians do not move together, and the national order is reshuffled: every occupation changes position.

The counselor median of $63,360 is $4,010 above the national $59,350, while the family therapist median of $62,700 is $4,240 below the national $66,940 and the social worker median of $52,520 is $7,760 below the national $60,280.

Nationally, family therapists lead counselors by $7,590 at the median; in Idaho that reverses, with counselors ahead by $660, or 1%.

The social worker median moves the other way: nationally it sits $930 above the counselor median; in Idaho it sits $10,840 below, the widest gap between any two of the state's medians.

The family-therapist-to-social-worker gap keeps its direction and widens, from $6,660 nationally to $10,180.

By median, Idaho ranks 11th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish this occupation for counselors, 23rd of 45 for family therapists and 29th of 51 for social workers.

Counselors are the one Idaho occupation whose median sits above its national figure, and the lead sits in the middle of the distribution — at the median and the 75th percentile — fading at both edges.

The median of $63,360 is 7% above the national $59,350, and the 75th percentile of $81,800 is 7% above the national $76,530.

The edges tell a different story: the 25th percentile of $47,060 sits $40 below the national $47,100, the 90th percentile of $98,760 is 1% above the national $97,590, and the 10th percentile of $36,400 falls 7% below the national $38,940.

The middle half of the Idaho distribution spans $34,740, wider than the national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $62,360 against $58,650 nationally.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, the Idaho median is a higher benchmark than the national one, while the Idaho 10th percentile sits 7% below its national counterpart.

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

Marriage and family therapists hold the middle of Idaho's three medians, $62,700, yet sit $4,240 below their national median of $66,940 — a 6% gap.

The hourly median is $30.15 against $32.18 nationally.

What is distinctive is the distance to the counselor row: nationally, family therapists lead counselors by $7,590 at the median; in Idaho they trail by $660.

BLS estimates only 140 marriage and family therapists employed in Idaho — tied for 33rd of the 40 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation — 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.

By median, Idaho ranks 23rd of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

Of the two rows this page reads at the percentiles, mental health and substance abuse social workers are the one whose 10th percentile sits above its national counterpart — and their widest percentage gap sits at the median.

The 10th percentile of $40,940 is 3% above the national $39,740, but the median of $52,520 is 13% below the national $60,280.

The 25th percentile of $45,760 is 3% below national, and higher up the gap narrows before widening again: 5% below at the 75th percentile ($75,920 against the national $79,730) and 11% below at the 90th ($92,770 against the national $104,170).

The middle half of the Idaho distribution spans $30,160, against a national band of $32,660, and the 10th-to-90th span is $51,830 against $64,430 nationally — the narrower spread comes from the ceiling rather than the floor.

With an estimated 510 workers, Idaho is tied for 41st of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation; by median it ranks 29th of 51.

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

The Idaho hourly medians are $30.46 for counselors, $30.15 for marriage and family therapists and $25.25 for mental health and substance abuse social workers.

Against the national hourly medians, that is $1.93 above for counselors ($28.53), $2.03 below for family therapists ($32.18) and $3.73 below for social workers ($28.98).

An annual offer at the counselor median of $63,360 would sit $10,840 above the Idaho social worker median, so the same dollar figure reads very differently across the rows.

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

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

Idaho licenses professional counselors as the LPC and, at the clinical tier, the LCPC; the counselor row pools LPCs and LCPCs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LPC-only or LCPC-only median for Idaho.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, and Idaho licenses these therapists as the LMFT, with the LAMFT associate tier below it, but OEWS does not split the row by licence stage, so it cannot say what an LAMFT 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 $52,520 median does not describe every LCSW in Idaho.

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

BLS estimates 140 employed in Idaho, a small count, so this page quotes that row's median only — $62,700 — rather than building on its percentile table, which the page prints under a small-sample flag.

The other two rows carry no flag: the counselor row rests on an estimated 2,990 workers and the social worker row on 510.

For all three occupations these are headcounts of people in jobs during the survey period, not open positions.