Therapist Salary in Ohio: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

The three Ohio medians separate cleanly.

The counselor median of $58,360 is $990 below the national $59,350, the social worker median of $46,080 is $14,200 below the national $60,280, and the family therapist median of $70,240 is $3,300 above the national $66,940.

The order below the top changes as a result.

Nationally, the social worker median sits $930 above the counselor median; in Ohio, the counselor median sits $12,280 above the social worker median.

Marriage and family therapists lead counselors in both places: nationally by $7,590 at the median, in Ohio by $11,880.

The gap between family therapists and social workers is wider still, $24,160 in Ohio against $6,660 nationally.

Any one Ohio figure for the whole title would have to hide the direction of at least one row, which is why this page shows all three.

The Ohio counselor distribution tracks the national one at the bottom and falls behind moving up.

The 10th percentile of $39,010 sits just $70 above the national figure, and the 25th percentile of $47,660 is 1% above.

From the median up the gap opens: the median of $58,360 is 2% below the national median, the 75th percentile of $68,850 is 10% below, and the 90th percentile of $83,730 is 14% below the national $97,590.

The middle half of the Ohio distribution spans $21,190 against a national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $44,720 against $58,650.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, the Ohio median is close to the national benchmark, but the upper percentiles are much lower than the national ones.

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

Marriage and family therapists are the one Ohio occupation whose median sits above its national figure: $70,240 against $66,940, a gap of $3,300, or 5%.

The hourly median is $33.77 against $32.18 nationally.

By median, Ohio ranks 12th of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

The employment estimate, 460, is small, so the page flags this row and quotes only its median in prose.

The percentiles the table below prints around that median swing well clear of the national ones — read that table as a small-count table, not as figures to weigh an offer against.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers sit below the national distribution at every point, and the percentage gap widens from the floor up.

The 10th percentile of $34,700 is 13% below the national figure, the 25th percentile of $38,170 is 19% below, the median of $46,080 is 24% below, and the 75th percentile of $57,960 is 27% below the national $79,730.

The 90th percentile of $75,610 is also 27% below its national figure, so the percentage gap barely widens at the top even though the dollar gap still grows, from $21,770 at the 75th to $28,560 at the 90th.

The middle half spans $19,790 against a national band of $32,660.

BLS estimates 6,050 employed in Ohio, which ranks 5th 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 counselor offer at the Ohio median of $58,360 sits $12,280 above the Ohio social worker median and $11,880 below the Ohio family therapist median, so the same dollar offer means different things in different rows.

Hourly postings read the same way: the Ohio hourly medians are $28.06 for counselors, $33.77 for family therapists and $22.16 for mental health and substance abuse social workers, against national hourly medians of $28.53, $32.18 and $28.98.

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

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools Ohio's licensed professional clinical counselors (LPCC) and licensed professional counselors (LPC) with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LPCC-only or LPC-only median for Ohio.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence: Ohio licenses the occupation itself, in two tiers — a marriage and family therapist licence and an independent marriage and family therapist licence above it — but OEWS does not split the row by tier, so it cannot say what an independent marriage and family therapist earns.

On the social work side, independent social workers (LISW) and social workers (LSW) are counted in this row or in healthcare social work depending on the setting, so the $46,080 median does not describe every LISW.

The employment estimate for marriage and family therapists in Ohio is 460, which the page treats as a small sample.

BLS still publishes percentiles for the occupation, and the table prints them, but a table built on a count that size can swing widely between percentiles — the Ohio 25th-to-75th span in that row runs far past the national 75th percentile, which is why this page quotes only the median for it.

Counselors and mental health and substance abuse social workers carry large employment estimates, 18,020 and 6,050, and no flag.