Therapist Salary in Kentucky: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, the three Kentucky medians move in the same direction: down.

The counselor median of $54,190 is $5,160 below the national $59,350, the family therapist median of $52,420 is $14,520 below the national $66,940, and the social worker median of $42,570 is $17,710 below the national $60,280.

Two of the three pairings flip as well.

Nationally the family therapist median leads counselors by $7,590, and social workers sit $930 above counselors; in Kentucky counselors lead family therapists by $1,770 and lead social workers by $11,620, or 27%.

The smallest gap to a national figure belongs to the counselor row, 9% below; the deepest belongs to the social worker row, 29% below.

The Kentucky counselor row sits closest to its national figures in the upper middle.

The 75th percentile of $72,590 is 5% below the national $76,530, the smallest gap in the row, while the median of $54,190 is 9% below and the 25th percentile of $41,730 is 11% below.

The floor sits at $35,150, 10% below national, and the gap is widest at the ceiling: the 90th percentile of $83,070 is 15% below the national $97,590.

The middle half of Kentucky counselors spans $30,860, a little wider than the national band of $29,430, but the 10th-to-90th span of $47,920 falls well short of the national $58,650.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, both the median and the ceiling benchmarks sit below their national counterparts.

BLS estimates 7,690 counselors employed in Kentucky, 23rd of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for the occupation, and ranks the median 41st of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one.

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

BLS estimates 330 marriage and family therapists employed in Kentucky, and this page treats the row as small-sample: the analysis quotes the median, the hourly median and the employment count, and leaves the percentile table alone.

The median is $52,420, $14,520 below the national $66,940, and the hourly median is $25.20 against $32.18 nationally.

Ranked by median, Kentucky is 36th of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

The Kentucky median also sits just $1,770 below the state's counselor median, where nationally the family therapist median leads the counselor median by $7,590; on an employment estimate of 330, that comparison rests on a small base.

OEWS does not say why the gap is what it is, and this page does not guess.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Kentucky sit below their national figures at every percentile, and the gap widens in dollars at every step, and in percent through the 75th percentile before holding at 39%.

The 10th percentile of $33,880 is 15% below the national $39,740, and the 25th of $37,230 is 21% below the national $47,070.

The median of $42,570 is 29% below the national $60,280.

At the top, the 75th and 90th percentiles of $48,780 and $63,960 are both 39% below their national figures of $79,730 and $104,170.

The middle half of the Kentucky distribution spans $11,550 against a national band of $32,660, so pay in this occupation clusters tightly around the median.

By median, Kentucky ranks 49th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one, and BLS estimates 1,360 employed, 27th of the 50 jurisdictions with an employment estimate.

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

The Kentucky hourly medians are $26.05 for counselors, $25.20 for marriage and family therapists and $20.46 for mental health and substance abuse social workers.

A counselor offer at the Kentucky median of $54,190 sits $5,160 below the national counselor median of $59,350, while the same dollar figure offered for a family therapist job would sit $1,770 above the Kentucky median of $52,420 — though the family therapist row carries the page's small-sample flag.

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

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LPCCs and LPCAs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LPCC-only median for Kentucky.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Kentucky licenses as the LMFT with a pre-licensure marriage and family therapist associate permit, but OEWS does not split it by licence stage, so it cannot say what an associate permit holder earns.

Social work has three tiers, the LSW, the CSW and the LCSW, and clinical social work jobs are counted either in this social worker row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $42,570 median does not describe every LCSW.

The family therapist row carries the page's small-sample flag: BLS estimates only 330 marriage and family therapists employed in Kentucky, so this page quotes that occupation at its median, its hourly median and its employment count rather than leaning on the percentile table.

The counselor row, 7,690, and the social worker row, 1,360, carry no flag.

Employment estimates are headcounts of people in jobs during the survey period, not open positions.