Therapist Salary in Iowa: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Two Iowa medians sit almost on their national figures and one does not.

The counselor median of $60,880 is $1,530 above the national $59,350 and the family therapist median of $67,180 is $240 above the national $66,940; the social worker median of $48,530 is $11,750 below the national $60,280.

The between-occupation gaps move differently.

The national family therapist premium over counselors, $7,590 at the median, nearly holds here at $6,300.

But the national gap runs the other way between counselors and social workers: nationally the social worker median is $930 higher, while in Iowa counselors lead social workers by $12,350.

Family therapists lead social workers by $18,650 here against $6,660 nationally.

Any single Iowa figure for therapists as such would have to hide this spread.

The Iowa counselor edge over the national figures is widest at the floor of the distribution and thinnest at the 75th percentile.

The 10th percentile of $44,450 is $5,510, or 14%, above the national figure of $38,940, while the 25th percentile of $48,420 is $1,320 above and the median of $60,880 is $1,530 above, and the 75th percentile of $77,220 is just $690, or 1%, above the national $76,530.

The 90th percentile of $102,890 is $5,300, or 5%, above the national $97,590.

The middle half of the Iowa distribution spans $28,800, close to the national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $58,440 against the national $58,650, so the overall width of the two distributions is nearly identical.

BLS estimates 3,530 counselors employed in Iowa, and the median ranks 19th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

This is a combined occupation: the figures pool licensed mental health counselors with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors rather than describing one licence.

Marriage and family therapists have Iowa's highest median of the three occupations, $67,180, and it sits $240 above the national median of $66,940 — effectively level with it.

The hourly medians are $32.30 in Iowa and $32.18 nationally, $0.12 apart.

At the median, family therapists lead Iowa counselors by $6,300 and social workers by $18,650.

This is the page's small-sample case, though: BLS estimates 240 marriage and family therapists employed in Iowa, a small employment estimate, so the page builds nothing on this occupation's percentiles and works from the median alone.

The median ranks 17th of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation, and by employment Iowa ranks 26th of the 40 that publish an estimate.

OEWS does not say why the count is this small, and this page does not guess.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers are the Iowa row that sits furthest from its national figures.

The dollar gap widens moving up the distribution: $1,760 at the 10th percentile, $2,440 at the 25th, $11,750 at the median, $13,550 at the 75th and $23,410 at the 90th.

In percentages the printed figures sit 4%, 5%, 19%, 17% and 22% below the national ones, so the relative gap narrows from the median to the 75th percentile before widening again at the 90th.

The state figures are $37,980, $44,630, $48,530, $66,180 and $80,760 against national figures of $39,740, $47,070, $60,280, $79,730 and $104,170.

The middle half of the Iowa distribution spans $21,550 against the national band of $32,660, so Iowa pay in this occupation clusters more tightly around its median.

The hourly median is $23.33 against $28.98 nationally.

BLS estimates 1,200 social workers employed in Iowa; that count ranks 30th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation, and the median ranks 38th of 51.

Read an offer against the row for the occupation the job would be counted in, not against a blended number.

The Iowa hourly medians make the spread concrete: $32.30 for marriage and family therapists, $29.27 for counselors and $23.33 for mental health and substance abuse social workers, so the same hourly rate reads differently against each row.

An annual offer of $60,880 sits exactly at the Iowa counselor median and $1,530 above the national counselor median of $59,350; offered for a social work position it would sit $12,350 above the Iowa social worker median of $48,530.

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

None of the three rows is a licence figure, and Iowa's own titles make the splits concrete.

The counselor row pools LMHCs — Iowa licenses mental health counselors as the LMHC — with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LMHC-only median for Iowa.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence: Iowa licenses this occupation as the LMFT, the licensed marital and family therapist, but OEWS does not split it by licence stage, so it cannot say what a therapist on Iowa's temporary marital and family therapy licence earns.

Iowa licenses social workers at the LBSW, LMSW and LISW tiers, with the LISW the independent tier.

Social workers holding the LISW are counted either in this row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $48,530 median does not describe every LISW.

The licensure pages linked below carry each licence's requirements.

One of the three Iowa rows carries a small-sample flag.

The marriage and family therapist row is the case: BLS estimates 240 marriage and family therapists employed in Iowa, and an employment estimate that small is why this page builds nothing on that occupation's percentile figures and works from its median, hourly median and the gaps between medians instead.

The counselor row, with an estimated 3,530 workers, and the social worker row, with 1,200, carry no flag, and their percentiles are used throughout the sections above.

The flag appears under the family therapist table on this page as well.