Therapist Salary in West Virginia: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

All three West Virginia medians sit the same distance below their national figures: 17% apiece.

The counselor median of $49,430 is $9,920 below the national $59,350, the family therapist median of $55,700 is $11,240 below the national $66,940, and the social worker median of $50,070 is $10,210 below the national $60,280.

The hourly medians repeat the pattern, each 17% below its national counterpart.

The national order among the three occupations also holds: nationally family therapists lead counselors by $7,590 at the median, in West Virginia the premium is $6,270, and social workers sit $640 above counselors just as they sit $930 above nationally.

The three state medians span only $6,270 top to bottom.

The ranks diverge, though: the counselor median ranks 48th of the 51 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation, while the family therapist median ranks 34th of 45 and the social worker median ranks 33rd of 51.

The counselor row is the one West Virginia row this page can analyze across its full distribution, and its shortfall against the national figures widens from floor to ceiling.

The 10th percentile of $36,990 is $1,950, or 5%, below the national figure and the 25th percentile of $42,730 is 9% below; the median of $49,430 is 17% below the national $59,350; the 75th percentile of $61,560 is 20% below; and the 90th percentile of $73,360 is $24,230, or 25%, below the national $97,590.

Both spans run narrower than their national counterparts: the middle half covers $18,830 against the national band of $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span is $36,370 against $58,650.

The hourly median is $23.76 against $28.53 nationally.

BLS estimates 2,100 counselors employed in West Virginia, which ranks 39th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate, while the median ranks 48th of 51.

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

Marriage and family therapists have the highest of West Virginia's three medians: $55,700, still 17% below the national median of $66,940, a gap of $11,240.

The hourly median is $26.78 against $32.18 nationally, also 17% below.

At the median the occupation leads the state's other two rows, $6,270 above counselors and $5,630 above mental health and substance abuse social workers, and the median ranks 34th of the 45 jurisdictions that publish one for this occupation.

The row carries the page's small-sample flag, though: BLS estimates 90 marriage and family therapists employed in West Virginia, which ranks 36th of the 40 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

An estimate this small is why the page builds nothing on this occupation's percentile figures and works from its median, hourly median and employment count instead; the full table is printed above with the flag.

OEWS does not say why the count is this small, and this page does not guess.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers sit between the state's other two rows: a median of $50,070, 17% below the national median of $60,280, a gap of $10,210.

The hourly median is $24.07 against $28.98 nationally, the same 17% shortfall.

The median runs $640 above the counselor median — nationally this occupation leads counselors by $930 — and $5,630 below the family therapist median, and it ranks 33rd of the 51 jurisdictions that publish a median for this occupation.

This row carries the page's small-sample flag as well: BLS estimates 420 social workers employed in West Virginia, which ranks 44th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

The analysis here therefore rests on the median, the hourly median and the employment count, and the percentiles printed above with the flag are not used.

Read an offer against the row for the occupation the job would be counted in, not a blended number.

The hourly medians make the spread concrete: $23.76 for counselors, $26.78 for marriage and family therapists and $24.07 for mental health and substance abuse social workers.

An annual offer of $55,700 would sit exactly at the family therapist median, $6,270 above the counselor median of $49,430 and $5,630 above the social worker median of $50,070; the same figure is $11,240 below the national family therapist median.

Because the counselor row is the only one with an employment estimate large enough to analyze, a counselor offer between $42,730 and $61,560 falls within the middle half of the state's counselor distribution.

A percentile is a position in the state distribution, not a pay step or a judgement about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LPCs — and counselors on the provisional licence the state issues before full licensure — with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LPC-only median for West Virginia.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence: the state licenses this occupation as the LMFT, with a provisional licence tier below it, but OEWS does not split the row by licence stage, so it cannot say what a family therapist on the provisional licence earns.

Social workers: West Virginia titles the independent clinical tier the LICSW, with the LCSW — Licensed Certified Social Worker — an earlier tier and the LSW and LGSW below that, and social workers holding the LICSW are counted either in this row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, so the $50,070 median does not describe every LICSW.

The licensure pages linked below carry each licence's requirements.

Two of West Virginia's three rows carry the page's small-sample flag, and one of them is unusually small: BLS estimates 90 marriage and family therapists employed in the state, and 420 mental health and substance abuse social workers.

When an employment estimate sits this far under the flag threshold, the percentile columns around the median rest on too few responses to analyze, so this page reasons only from the flagged rows' medians, hourly medians and employment counts and leaves their percentiles — printed above with the flag — unused.

The counselor row is not flagged: its estimated 2,100 workers support the full distribution used in the sections above.

The flags change nothing about the medians themselves; they bound what can responsibly be built on the figures around them.