Therapist Salary in Texas: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, the three Texas medians do not move together.

The counselor median of $62,630 is $3,280 above the national $59,350, while the family therapist median of $46,300 is $20,640 below the national $66,940 and the social worker median of $46,630 is $13,650 below the national $60,280.

The order flips as a result.

Nationally, family therapists lead counselors by $7,590 at the median; in Texas, counselors lead family therapists by $16,330, or 35%, and lead social workers by $16,000.

The Texas family therapist and social worker medians sit just $330 apart.

Any one Texas figure for the whole title would have to hide one of these directions, which is why this page shows all three.

The Texas counselor premium is a middle-of-the-distribution effect.

The median is 6% above the national median, and the 75th percentile, $79,200, is 3% above the national $76,530.

At both edges Texas falls slightly behind: the 10th percentile of $37,650 is 3% below the national figure, the 25th percentile of $45,290 is 4% below, and the 90th percentile of $95,910 is 2% below the national $97,590.

So the middle half of Texas counselors spans $33,910, wider than the national band of $29,430, while the 10th-to-90th span is almost identical at $58,260 against $58,650.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, the Texas median is a higher benchmark than the national one, but the Texas ceiling is not.

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

Texas marriage and family therapists sit below the national distribution at every published point, and the gap is widest at the median.

The 10th percentile of $36,700 is 18% below the national $44,650; the 25th percentile of $38,250 is 24% below; the median of $46,300 is 31% below; and the 90th percentile of $93,500 is 24% below the national $123,730.

The hourly median is $22.26 against $32.18 nationally.

The shape is lopsided as well: the 25th percentile and the median are only $8,050 apart, then the distribution stretches $26,520 from the median to the 75th percentile of $72,820.

BLS estimates 1,380 family therapists employed in Texas, a large enough count that the page carries no small-sample flag, but OEWS does not say why the median sits so low, and this page does not guess.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Texas have a median of $46,630, 23% below the national $60,280, and the gap grows toward the top: the 75th percentile of $57,320 is 28% below the national $79,730 and the 90th percentile of $79,210 is 24% below.

The floor is closer, with the 10th percentile of $36,870 just 7% below national.

The middle half of the Texas distribution spans only $16,240, about half the national band of $32,660, so Texas pay in this occupation clusters tightly around the median.

With an estimated 8,220 workers, Texas ranks 3rd 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 Texas median of $62,630 is above the national counselor median of $59,350; the same dollar figure offered to a family therapist would sit $16,330 above the Texas family therapist median.

Hourly postings read the same way: the Texas hourly medians are $30.11 for counselors, $22.26 for family therapists and $22.42 for social workers.

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

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LPCs and LPC Associates with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LPC-only median for Texas.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Texas licenses as the LMFT with an LMFT Associate tier, but OEWS does not split it by licence stage, so it cannot say what an LMFT Associate 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 $46,630 median does not describe every LCSW.