Therapist Salary in Rhode Island: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Both published Rhode Island medians sit above their national counterparts, but by very different amounts.

The counselor median of $65,120 is $5,770 above the national $59,350, a 10% difference, and ranks 7th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one; the social worker median of $60,990 is $710 above the national $60,280, a 1% difference, ranking 18th.

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

The two occupations also swap places between the state and the nation: nationally the social worker median of $60,280 leads the counselor median of $59,350 by $930, while in Rhode Island counselors lead social workers by $4,130.

The hourly medians, $31.31 and $29.32, also sit above their national counterparts of $28.53 and $28.98, but their order reverses too: nationally the social worker hourly median of $28.98 edges the counselor figure of $28.53 by $0.45.

The Rhode Island counselor premium runs the full height of the distribution.

The 10th percentile of $43,960 is 13% above the national figure, the widest gap in the row, and the median of $65,120 is $5,770, or 10%, above the national $59,350, ranking 7th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one.

The remaining percentiles sit closer to national: the 25th percentile of $47,470 is 1% above the national $47,100, the 75th of $79,300 is 4% above the national $76,530, and the 90th of $98,440 is 1% above the national $97,590.

The middle half of the state distribution spans $31,830, slightly wider than the national band of $29,430, while the 10th-to-90th span of $54,480 is narrower than the national $58,650.

The hourly median is $31.31 against $28.53 nationally, which also ranks 7th.

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 Rhode Island sit close to the national distribution at the median — $60,990 against $60,280, a 1% difference that ranks 18th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one — and far from it at the top.

The 75th percentile of $110,210 is $30,480, or 38%, above the national $79,730, and the 90th percentile of $135,200 is $31,030, or 30%, above the national $104,170.

The floor is above national too: the 10th percentile of $42,900 is 8% above, and the 25th of $49,340 is 5% above.

The distribution runs heavily to the upper tail: the 75th percentile sits $49,220 above the median while the median sits $11,650 above the 25th, and the middle half spans $60,870 against a national band of $32,660.

The hourly median is $29.32 against $28.98 nationally.

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

The hourly medians are $31.31 for counselors and $29.32 for mental health and substance abuse social workers, $1.99 apart; nationally that order is reversed, with the social worker hourly median of $28.98 above the counselor figure of $28.53 by $0.45.

A counselor offer at the state median of $65,120 sits $5,770 above the national counselor median, and the same dollar figure offered in the social worker row would sit $4,130 above that occupation's state median of $60,990.

A percentile is a position in the state distribution, not a pay step, so an offer at or above the social worker 75th percentile of $110,210 sits in the top quarter of that row.

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

The counselor row pools Rhode Island's licensed clinical mental health counselors and their associate tier, the clinical mental health counselor associate licence, with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors; BLS publishes no counselor-only median for the state.

The social worker row is counted by occupation, not by licence: Rhode Island licenses clinical social work at exactly two tiers, the LCSW, its supervised tier, and the LICSW, its autonomous tier, and it issues no LBSW or LMSW.

Clinical social workers holding the LCSW are counted either in this row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $60,990 median does not describe every LCSW or LICSW.

Rhode Island does license marriage and family therapists, through the marriage and family therapist licence with a marriage and family therapist associate licence beneath it, but BLS publishes no estimate for the occupation in this state, so no figure on this page describes one.

No row on this page carries the small-sample flag: BLS estimates 2,170 counselors and 800 mental health and substance abuse social workers employed in Rhode Island, and both rows come with full percentile tables rather than a median alone.

By employment, Rhode Island is tied for 36th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an estimate for each occupation.

The figures to read with that count in mind are the social worker tail percentiles: the 75th of $110,210 and the 90th of $135,200 rest on roughly 800 workers, so they describe the shape of the state's distribution in this release, not what any single job pays.

Both counts are headcounts of people in jobs, not open positions.