Occupational therapist salary is influenced by a lot of factors—including the education level and qualifications of the occupational therapist, as well as the establishment or institution he or she is working for, and the location of the workplace. Occupational therapy is loosely defined as the professional practice of therapy using “occupations”—or the active processes that living people engage in—as a form of treatment and rehabilitation for people who have been disabled by serious injury or illness, or have been crippled by emotional, physical, or mental stress and trauma.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor, the average occupational therapist salary is around seventy thousand dollars every year. This estimation of occupational therapist salary in based on the average working schedule of forty hours per week (which roughly translates to around 2,080 hours every year). There are a lot of industries that an occupational therapist can work in—and this variety of options also influence the occupational therapist salary. In some low-paying industries, the average occupational therapist salary is around fifty thousand dollars every year, while some more generous industries have reported to pay ninety thousand dollars in occupational therapist salary.
The type of institution, organization, or establishment a licensed medical professional is working for can greatly influence the amount of occupational therapy salary. You will find better occupational therapy salary options in places that need immediate services of an occupational therapist. For example, an occupational therapist is highly needed in private or public hospitals, nursing homes, healthcare centers, school clinics, and other such institutions. Of course, the professionals who work for a hospital or some form of healthcare establishment get higher occupational therapist salary compared to those who are employed in private or public elementary and secondary schools.
As we have mentioned above, the occupational therapist salary is also affected and influenced by the location of the workplace. In general, the occupational therapists working in the states of California, New Jersey, Maryland, Texas, and Nevada are the highest paid in the whole country, with hourly rates of around fifty dollars per hour. In California, the average occupational therapist salary is around eighty thousand dollars per year, but certain cities within the state have a higher wage rate. For example, Redwood City and San Mateo offer an occupational therapist salary of around ninety-five thousand dollars ever year, but cities like Ventura and Oxnard—which are in the same state—offer around ninety thousand per year.
Occupational therapists working in private or public elementary schools are among the lowest earners in this kind of medical practice. The average occupational therapist salary in this kind of institutions are around sixty thousand dollars every year—which can be significantly lower compared to the seventy thousand per annum brought home by those employed by hospitals and healthcare establishments.
There is also better occupational therapist salary potential for those who have pursued further training and education in the field. The medical industry is quite competitive, and it will be very easy to lose one’s job to someone who is more qualified.