Therapist Salary in Massachusetts: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, the three Massachusetts medians sit above, though not by the same amount.

The counselor median of $59,890 is $540 above the national $59,350, the family therapist median of $67,370 is $430 above the national $66,940, and the social worker median of $62,500 is $2,220 above the national $60,280.

The national ordering - family therapists highest, social workers in the middle, counselors lowest - holds in Massachusetts.

The national gap between family therapists and counselors at the median is $7,590; in Massachusetts it is $7,480.

Social workers sit $2,610 above counselors here, a wider spread than the $930 national one.

In all three rows the state-vs-national gap is widest near the bottom of the distribution, narrows through the middle, and is flat or negative by the 75th percentile: +1%, -3% and -1% against national.

The Massachusetts counselor premium is a floor effect.

The 10th percentile of $43,180 is 11% above the national figure, the widest gap at any point of this distribution, and the 25th percentile of $47,540 is 1% above.

From there the advantage thins to the median of $59,890, 1% above the national $59,350, and the 75th percentile of $76,950, also 1% above.

At the ceiling Massachusetts falls behind: the 90th percentile of $96,200 is 1% below the national $97,590.

The middle half of the distribution spans $29,410, slightly narrower than the national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $53,020 against $58,650.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, the part of the range that stands out against national pay is the floor, not the ceiling.

BLS estimates 18,190 counselors employed in the state, 7th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate.

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

Massachusetts marriage and family therapists sit above the national distribution at the bottom of the range and below it in the upper middle.

The 25th percentile of $61,050 is 22% above the national $50,070 - the largest state-vs-national gap on this page - while the 75th percentile of $90,980 is 3% below the national $93,840.

The median of $67,370 is 1% above the national $66,940.

The middle half therefore spans $29,930 against a national band of $43,770, and most of that narrowing sits below the median: $6,320 separates the 25th percentile from the median, against $16,870 nationally.

The top stretches back out: the 90th percentile of $128,490 is 4% above the national $123,730, and the 10th percentile of $49,070 is 10% above.

BLS estimates 600 marriage and family therapists employed in Massachusetts - 15th of the 40 jurisdictions with an employment estimate, 15th of 45 by median.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers show the clearest floor premium of the three.

The 10th percentile of $48,260 is 21% above the national $39,740, and the 25th percentile of $53,970 is 15% above.

The median of $62,500 is 4% above the national $60,280.

Above the middle the state figures slip under national: the 75th percentile of $78,750 is 1% below the national $79,730 and the 90th percentile of $100,670 is 3% below the national $104,170.

The whole 10th-to-90th span is $52,410 against a national $64,430, and the middle half spans $24,780 against $32,660.

BLS estimates 7,440 employed in the state, 4th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation, so these percentiles rest on a large count.

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

A Massachusetts offer at the counselor median of $59,890 sits $540 above the national counselor median, $2,610 below the state social worker median and $7,480 below the state family therapist median.

Hourly postings read the same way: the Massachusetts hourly medians are $28.80 for counselors, $32.39 for family therapists and $30.05 for social workers, each above its national counterpart of $28.53, $32.18 and $28.98.

Because the state premiums sit below the middle of each distribution, an offer near the bottom of a range is the position where the state figures run furthest ahead of the national ones.

A percentile is a position in the state distribution, not a pay step.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LMHCs and the supervised LSMHC licence below them with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LMHC-only median for the state.

The family therapist row is the closest of the three to a licence figure: an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Massachusetts licenses as a single LMFT licence with no associate or provisional tier.

In social work the titles matter: Massachusetts licenses the LICSW, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, as the independent clinical tier, and the LCSW, Licensed Certified Social Worker, as a supervised tier below it.

Clinical social workers holding either are counted in this row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $62,500 median does not describe every Massachusetts clinical social worker.