Therapist Salary in New Mexico: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

The three New Mexico medians all sit above their national figures, and by very different margins.

The counselor median of $74,100 is $14,750 above the national $59,350, a 25% premium; the family therapist median of $70,630 is $3,690 above the national $66,940, 6%; the social worker median of $65,640 is $5,360 above the national $60,280, 9%.

The ordering swaps at the top as a result.

Nationally the family therapist median leads the counselor median by $7,590; in New Mexico counselors lead family therapists by $3,470.

The social worker median, $930 above the counselor median nationally, sits $8,460 below it here.

Hourly, the state medians are $35.63, $33.96 and $31.56 against national $28.53, $32.18 and $28.98.

The New Mexico counselor premium is widest, in percentage terms, in the lower half of the distribution: the 10th percentile of $48,900 is 26% above the national $38,940 and the 25th of $60,300 is 28% above $47,100, and the median of $74,100 is 25% above the national $59,350.

From there the premium narrows toward the ceiling: the 75th percentile of $89,800 is 17% above the national $76,530 and the 90th of $113,420 is 16% above $97,590.

The middle half of the state distribution spans $29,500, a shade wider than the national band of $29,430, while the 10th-to-90th span of $64,520 exceeds the national $58,650: the 90th percentile runs $15,830 above the national figure, the 10th only $9,960.

BLS estimates 2,420 counselors employed in New Mexico, and the median ranks 3rd of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median for this occupation.

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

New Mexico marriage and family therapists have a median of $70,630, $3,690 above the national median of $66,940, and an hourly median of $33.96 against $32.18 nationally, $1.78 higher.

BLS estimates only 160 family therapists employed in the state, so this row carries the page's small-sample flag, and this analysis quotes the occupation's median and hourly median only: the table's percentiles rest on an estimate too small to build a conclusion on.

The 6% premium at the median is the narrowest of the three New Mexico rows.

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

Mental health and substance abuse social workers straddle their national figures: below at the floor, above from the median up.

The 10th percentile of $36,700 is $3,040 below the national $39,740 and the 25th of $44,860 is $2,210 below $47,070.

Above the middle the row runs ahead: the median of $65,640 is 9% above the national $60,280, the 75th of $86,150 is 8% above the national $79,730, and the 90th of $114,170 is 10% above the national $104,170.

The state spread is wider than the national one: the middle half spans $41,290 against $32,660, and the 10th-to-90th span $77,470 against $64,430.

BLS estimates 800 employed, the median ranks 11th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median, and employment is tied for 36th of the 50 that publish an employment estimate.

Start with the occupation the job would be counted in, and compare the offer to that row.

The New Mexico hourly medians are $35.63 for counselors, $33.96 for family therapists and $31.56 for social workers, each above its national counterpart of $28.53, $32.18 and $28.98.

In annual terms, an offer of $70,630 would sit exactly at the family therapist median, $3,470 below the counselor median and $4,990 above the social worker median.

A percentile is a position in the state distribution, not a pay step or a judgement about the person hired: an offer at the 25th percentile says where it falls among New Mexico jobs in that occupation, nothing more.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

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

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

The social worker row spans titles New Mexico licenses separately: LBSW, LMSW, and the independent clinical level lettered LCSW or LISW.

And it is not the whole of clinical social work either, because LCSWs are counted either in this row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $65,640 median does not describe every LCSW.

The licensure pages linked under this section own each title's rules.

New Mexico's marriage and family therapists row carries the page's small-sample flag: BLS estimates only 160 employed in the state, a small employment estimate, so this page quotes only that occupation's median and hourly median and builds nothing on its percentiles.

The counselor row, with an estimated 2,420 employed, and the social worker row, with 800, are not flagged, and their percentile walks rest on the larger counts shown above.