Therapist Salary in Louisiana: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Neither published Louisiana median matches its national counterpart, and the counselor gap is the deeper one.

The counselor median of $37,910 sits $21,440 below the national $59,350, a 36% gap; the social worker median of $47,100 sits $13,180 below the national $60,280, a 22% gap.

BLS publishes no estimate for Louisiana for marriage and family therapists, so the third row is empty here.

The two occupations also do not stand as close together as they do nationally: the social worker median leads the counselor median by $9,190 in Louisiana, against $930 between the two national medians, and social workers are ahead at every published percentile — the lead is narrowest at the 10th ($2,030), widest at the median, and still $6,720 at the 90th.

The Louisiana counselor distribution sits below the national one at every percentile, and the gap is widest in the middle.

The 10th percentile of $29,860 is 23% below the national figure, the 25th of $33,970 is 28% below, the median of $37,910 is 36% below, the 75th of $55,370 is 28% below, and the 90th of $65,720 is 33% below the national $97,590.

The middle half of the distribution spans $21,400 against a national band of $29,430, and the full 10th-to-90th span is $35,860 against $58,650.

The hourly median is $18.22 against $28.53 nationally.

BLS estimates 6,420 counselors employed in Louisiana, a large enough count that the page carries no small-sample flag, yet the median still ranks 51st 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.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Louisiana have a median of $47,100, 22% below the national $60,280, and their gap is steadier than the counselor gap through most of the distribution: the 10th percentile of $31,890 is 20% below national, the 25th of $36,380 is 23% below, and the 75th of $62,170 is 22% below.

The exception is the ceiling: the 90th percentile of $72,440 is 30% below the national $104,170, the widest social worker gap in the row.

The middle half spans $25,790 against a national band of $32,660.

The hourly median is $22.64 against $28.98.

BLS estimates 970 social workers employed in Louisiana, which ranks 33rd of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

Read an offer against the row for the occupation the job would be counted in, never against a single Louisiana therapy number, because the page has none.

The hourly medians are $18.22 for counselors and $22.64 for mental health and substance abuse social workers, $4.42 apart, and both sit below their national counterparts of $28.53 and $28.98.

An annual offer at the social worker median of $47,100 would sit $9,190 above the counselor median while remaining 22% below the national social worker median.

A percentile is a position in the state distribution, not a pay step, so an offer at the 25th percentile says where a figure sits among Louisiana jobs in that occupation.

None of the figures on this page is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools Louisiana's LPCs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, so BLS publishes no LPC-only median for the state, and the provisional PLPC stage is not split out at all.

The social worker row mixes licence levels as well: clinical social workers holding the LCSW are counted either here or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $47,100 median does not describe every LCSW, and pay at the LMSW and CSW levels is not visible in it either.

Louisiana does license marriage and family therapists, as the LMFT with a provisional PLMFT tier, but BLS publishes no estimate for the occupation in this state, so no figure on this page describes an LMFT at all.