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Pay · 29-1122

Occupational therapists earn $100,330 a year at the midpoint

From about $71,690 at the low end to $131,950 at the top, with $100,330 in the middle — the 2025 survey, published as reported.

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$100,330median a year · United States
$48.24an hour $101,280average 162,450people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$82,51025th $100,330median $116,67075th
$71,69010th percentile $131,95090th percentile
$82,510a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$124,510best-paying state · California
$83,200lowest-paying state · North Dakota
+24%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

Occupational therapist earnings, from starting pay to the top 10%

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Examples

Resumes written for this line of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Occupational therapist pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$100,339a year

Related work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Occupational therapists$100,330
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons$352,220+$251,890 Nurse anesthetists$236,590+$136,260 Pharmacists$140,910+$40,580 Nurse practitioners$132,300+$31,970 Physical therapists$102,760+$2,430 Registered nurses$97,550−$2,780

Occupational therapist wages across the states

The 49 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.50 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $124,510 $85,550 $85,550 — $158,560 13,810
Oregon $112,310 $78,500 $78,500 — $131,340 1,170
Nevada $110,520 $85,720 $85,720 — $139,260 1,080
District of Columbia $109,170 $81,760 $81,760 — $129,810 540
Washington $107,670 $83,110 $83,110 — $135,290 3,340
Maryland $106,980 $76,650 $76,650 — $132,300 2,390
Colorado $106,720 $81,390 $81,390 — $157,820 3,390
Arkansas $106,360 $65,160 $65,160 — $144,250 2,160
Texas $106,140 $76,350 $76,350 — $135,200 13,400
Oklahoma $104,300 $68,530 $68,530 — $134,420 1,180
Georgia $104,010 $75,290 $75,290 — $128,610 3,650
Alaska $103,680 $82,320 $82,320 — $133,860 410
Arizona $103,660 $78,160 $78,160 — $131,950 2,680
New Jersey $103,410 $78,690 $78,690 — $159,230 6,290
Hawaii $102,870 $78,670 $78,670 — $118,240 390
Connecticut $102,440 $76,360 $76,360 — $127,630 3,150
Delaware $102,130 $71,280 $71,280 — $138,640 490
South Carolina $101,130 $75,370 $75,370 — $123,110 1,840
Massachusetts $100,930 $73,140 $73,140 — $127,380 6,510
Virginia $100,710 $70,200 $70,200 — $134,570 4,150
Rhode Island $100,040 $75,760 $75,760 — $126,630 770
Illinois $99,700 $73,360 $73,360 — $132,180 7,710
Ohio $99,390 $70,080 $70,080 — $123,800 6,760
Florida $99,360 $66,230 $66,230 — $117,950 10,650
Kansas $99,170 $66,720 $66,720 — $120,950 1,560
New Mexico $99,170 $69,230 $69,230 — $133,050 1,030
Louisiana $98,490 $61,070 $61,070 — $126,630 2,060
Pennsylvania $98,440 $69,120 $69,120 — $128,790 6,560
Idaho $97,760 $69,440 $69,440 — $152,880 840
Tennessee $97,700 $68,520 $68,520 — $119,070 2,490
Kentucky $97,650 $71,030 $71,030 — $119,250 2,190
Missouri $97,290 $71,880 $71,880 — $120,130 3,400
Utah $97,150 $75,570 $75,570 — $126,970 1,030
Indiana $97,020 $69,550 $69,550 — $119,950 3,830
New York $96,390 $64,770 $64,770 — $133,700 11,690
West Virginia $96,190 $60,870 $60,870 — $129,460 700
Mississippi $94,930 $73,200 $73,200 — $113,950 1,340
Alabama $94,050 $76,670 $76,670 — $123,870 1,500
Nebraska $93,740 $70,370 $70,370 — $107,780 1,500
Minnesota $93,050 $71,770 $71,770 — $108,790 3,670
North Carolina $92,940 $62,230 $62,230 — $118,300 4,490
Wisconsin $92,390 $73,610 $73,610 — $110,950 3,710
Iowa $89,910 $64,610 $64,610 — $109,200 1,290
Michigan $89,910 $66,580 $66,580 — $105,720 5,120
Montana $88,990 $76,110 $76,110 — $110,910 420
South Dakota $85,050 $65,820 $65,820 — $106,520 490
Maine $84,310 $63,750 $63,750 — $114,100 1,120
New Hampshire $83,900 $64,150 $64,150 — $115,050 1,240
North Dakota $83,200 $66,890 $66,890 — $106,300 570

Resumes for occupational therapists

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

eClinicalWorks EHR softwareScreen reader softwareRehab Documentation Company ReDoc SuiteScreen magnification softwareText to speech softwareMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Office softwareBizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
  • Tested and evaluated patients' physical and mental abilities and analyzed medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
  • Completed and maintained necessary records.
  • Planned, organized, and conducted occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Number 118 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 85% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 116 Clinical and Counseling Psychologists $100,580
  2. 117 Computer Programmers $100,390
  3. 118 Occupational therapists $100,330
  4. 119 Physics Teachers, Postsecondary $100,310
  5. 120 Genetic Counselors $100,040

Questions people often ask

What is an occupational therapist’s yearly income?

An occupational therapist makes a median of $100,330 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $82,510 and $116,670.

What is an occupational therapist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $48.24 an hour; the average is $101,280 a year.

What is the starting pay for an occupational therapist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $82,510 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $71,690.

Which state pays occupational therapists the most?

California, with a median of $124,510 a year.

How many people work as occupational therapists?

About 162,450 in the United States — number 118 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $1,090 of what occupational therapists earn — $100,330 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations