Therapist Salary in Washington: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, the three Washington medians split two above, one below.

The counselor median of $68,910 is $9,560 above the national $59,350, and the social worker median of $70,460 is $10,180 above the national $60,280.

The family therapist median of $60,000 moves the other way, $6,940 below the national $66,940.

The result is a complete reversal of the national order: nationally, family therapists lead social workers by $6,660 and counselors by $7,590, while in Washington they trail both, with counselors ahead of them by $8,910 and social workers by $10,460.

The two above-national rows sit close together — $1,550, about 2%, separates social workers from counselors — while the family therapist median is a clear third.

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

Washington counselors sit above the national distribution at every published percentile.

The 10th percentile of $47,220 is 21% above the national $38,940, the 25th percentile of $56,280 is 19% above, the median of $68,910 is 16% above — 4th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one — and the 75th percentile of $90,970 is 19% above the national $76,530.

The gap narrows at the ceiling, where the 90th percentile of $110,580 is 13% above the national $97,590; the state ceiling is 2.3 times the state floor.

The spread is wider than national as well: the middle half spans $34,690 against a national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $63,360 against $58,650.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, the Washington median is a $9,560-higher benchmark than the national one, and the hourly median of $33.13 runs $4.60 above national.

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

Marriage and family therapists are the one Washington row below its national figure, and the one BLS publishes no employment estimate for.

The median is $60,000, 10% below the national median of $66,940, and the hourly median is $28.84 against $32.18 nationally.

That puts Washington 30th of the 45 jurisdictions where BLS publishes a median for this occupation.

The published figures end there: because BLS withholds the state employment estimate, the page flags this row, and its percentile tables should be read with that caveat in mind.

Against the state's other rows the gap is real — the counselor median of $68,910 sits $8,910 above the family therapist median, and the social worker median of $70,460 is $10,460 above it.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers have the highest Washington median of the three, $70,460, 17% above the national $60,280 and 8th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one.

The premium is largest at the 25th percentile: the 10th percentile of $46,790 is 18% above the national $39,740 and the 25th percentile of $56,050 is 19% above, but the 75th percentile of $84,500 is only 6% above the national $79,730, and the 90th percentile of $102,680 is 1% below the national $104,170.

The top of the national distribution also reaches further above its own median: $43,890 from median to 90th percentile, against $32,220 in Washington.

The middle half spans $28,450, against a national band of $32,660.

BLS estimates 3,490 social workers employed in Washington, the 13th largest count of the 50 jurisdictions that publish one — large enough that no small-sample note attaches to this row.

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

The counselor and social worker hourly medians are close — $33.13 and $33.88 — while family therapists sit well below at $28.84.

At the annual median, the state's two above-national rows sit $1,550 apart, about 2%: $70,460 for social workers against $68,910 for counselors.

A counselor offer at the Washington median sits $9,560 above the national counselor median of $59,350; the same dollar figure offered for a family therapist job would sit $8,910 above that occupation's Washington median of $60,000.

And a percentile is a position in the state's distribution, not a pay step, so an offer at the 25th percentile says where the number falls among Washington jobs in that occupation — nothing about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools the LMHC, the licence Washington issues for clinical mental health counseling, with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LMHC-only median for Washington.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence: an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Washington licenses directly as licensed marriage and family therapists, with a licensed associate tier beneath it.

OEWS does not split the row by licence stage, so it cannot say what an associate earns.

Clinical social workers, whom Washington licenses as LICSWs, are counted either in this social worker row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting of the job, so the social worker median of $70,460 does not describe every LICSW.

One of the three Washington rows carries a caveat the other two do not.

BLS publishes no employment estimate for marriage and family therapists in Washington, so the page flags that row: its median of $60,000 and hourly median of $28.84 are the published figures, and no count is available to show how many jobs the estimate rests on.

The other two rows carry published employment estimates — 14,250 counselors and 3,490 mental health and substance abuse social workers — so their full distributions stand on published counts.