Therapist Salary in Montana: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Every Montana median sits below its own national figure, by very different margins.

The counselor median of $59,000 is 1% below the national $59,350; the family therapist median of $46,960 is 30% below the national $66,940, and the social worker median of $45,160 is 25% below the national $60,280.

The order changes as a result.

Nationally the ranking runs family therapists, social workers, counselors; in Montana it runs counselors, family therapists, social workers, so no occupation keeps its national position.

The national family therapist lead over counselors, $7,590 at the median, becomes a counselor lead of $12,040 in Montana, and the social worker edge over counselors nationally, $930, becomes a counselor lead of $13,840.

One number for therapists as a Montana title would have to hide two of these directions.

The Montana counselor row tracks its national counterpart through the 75th percentile and then falls away.

The 10th percentile of $36,840 is 5% below the national figure, the 25th of $46,170 is 2% below it, the median of $59,000 is 1% below it and the 75th of $74,010 is 3% below.

At the 90th percentile the gap opens to $13,950: Montana sits at $83,640, 14% below the national $97,590.

That top segment is where the distributions differ — from the 75th percentile to the 90th the national spread runs $21,060, against $9,630 in Montana.

The middle half spans $27,840 against a national band of $29,430.

BLS estimates 1,820 counselors employed in Montana, ranking 42nd 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.

The Montana family therapist median of $46,960 sits 30% below the national median of $66,940, a gap of $19,980.

The hourly median is $22.58 against $32.18 nationally, $9.60 less.

This row carries the page's small-sample flag: BLS estimates only 100 marriage and family therapists employed in Montana, the smallest employment estimate of the three occupations here, so the page quotes this row at its median, its hourly median and its employment, and withholds its percentile tails from the analysis.

By median, Montana ranks 41st of the 45 jurisdictions where BLS publishes the occupation; by employment, 35th of 40.

The median still orders the state's three occupations: $12,040 below the counselor median and $1,800 above the social worker median.

OEWS records wages and employment, not why this median sits where it does, and this page does not guess.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Montana sit below the national distribution at every published percentile.

The 10th percentile of $37,960 is $1,780 under the national figure; the 25th of $39,760 is $7,310 under; the median of $45,160 is $15,120 under the national $60,280; the 75th of $59,850 is $19,880 under; and the 90th of $82,390 is $21,780 under the national $104,170.

The dollar shortfall widens steadily up the distribution, while in percentage terms it is smallest at the floor, 4%, and runs 25% at the median and 75th before easing to 21% at the 90th.

The middle half spans $20,090 against a national band of $32,660.

BLS estimates 740 employed, tied for 38th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

The hourly median is $21.71 against $28.98 nationally.

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

A counselor offer at the Montana median of $59,000 sits $350 under the national counselor median, but the same figure would sit $12,040 above the Montana family therapist median and $13,840 above the Montana social worker median.

Hourly postings read the same way: the Montana hourly medians are $28.36 for counselors, $22.58 for family therapists and $21.71 for social workers — a $6.65 spread between the counselor and social worker 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 Montana jobs in that occupation, not a judgement about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LCPCs — Montana's independent counselor licence, issued by the Board of Behavioral Health — with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LCPC-only median for the state.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence: Montana licenses marriage and family therapists as an LMFT, with a candidate tier, but OEWS does not split the row by licence stage, so it cannot say what a candidate 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 $45,160 median does not describe every LCSW.

The family therapist row carries this page's small-sample flag.

BLS estimates 100 marriage and family therapists employed in Montana — a small employment estimate, the only one of the three rows under the page's small-sample threshold — and the page responds by quoting that row only at its median, its hourly median and its employment.

The 10th, 25th, 75th and 90th percentiles for the row are printed in the table above but build nothing in the analysis, because percentile tails estimated from an employment count that small move sharply between releases.

The counselor and social worker rows, with estimated employment of 1,820 and 740, are not flagged.