| Weekly pay | Up to $3,200 on a 40-hour week |
|---|---|
| Schedule | Days, typically 9 AM to 5 PM, 40 hours per week (facility and schedule dependent) |
| Duration | 13 weeks |
| License | Active California OT license required, issued by the California Board of Occupational Therapy (see below) |
| Settings | Skilled nursing, home health, inpatient, and outpatient across California |
| Locations | San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, San Francisco, and more statewide |
| Experience | 0 to 2+ years depending on the assignment; new grads considered for select roles |
| Extras | Weekly pay and a dedicated recruiter. Stipend details vary by contract; your recruiter breaks down every package. Call (866) 680-2920. |
| Pay updated | June 2026 |
No state employs more occupational therapists, or offers more variety, than California. The scale is the story: the most people, the most clinics and hospitals, and demand spread across every setting an OT can work in. Skilled nursing facilities need therapists for rehab and discharge planning, home-health agencies cover territories they struggle to fill, inpatient rehab units run full caseloads, and outpatient and hand-therapy clinics compete for talent. For benchmarking, occupational therapists earn a national median of about $98,340 a year per BLS data, and California sits above it, before travel stipends are counted.
For a traveler, that breadth is the appeal. Whether you want the structure of inpatient rehab, the independence of home health, the pace of a skilled nursing facility, or the hands-on focus of outpatient and pediatric work, California has all of it in volume. We Care Staffing's current California OT contracts pay up to $3,200 a week on a 40-hour schedule, with predictable weekday daytime hours, roughly 9 AM to 5 PM. A 13-week assignment here also doubles as a long working vacation, from the coast to the mountains.
Some California markets have their own dedicated pages with local detail, pay, and how to apply:
More California city pages are on the way. Looking for a specific city now? Call (866) 680-2920 and a recruiter will tell you what is open near you.
We staff OT contracts across California, from Southern California to the Bay Area to the Central Valley. Current and recurring locations include:
Coverage changes as new contracts open, and many roles fill before they reach the site. To hear what is available near you right now, call a recruiter at (866) 680-2920, or submit your profile and we will match you to the closest openings across outpatient, skilled nursing, home health, and inpatient settings.
California licenses occupational therapists through the California Board of Occupational Therapy (CBOT), built on your NBCOT certification. There is no OT licensure compact, so you need a California license even if you are licensed in another state. The good news is the timeline: CBOT publishes a review time of about 3 to 4 weeks, which is quicker than many state therapy licenses, and it applies online through the BreEZe system. Recent graduates may qualify for a Limited Permit to practice under supervision while awaiting the exam. Start your application before your contract search, and a recruiter can help you plan the timing.
As a travel occupational therapist with We Care Staffing, you evaluate patients and build treatment plans that restore the everyday function that matters to them: helping people regain independence in daily activities after injury, surgery, stroke, or illness, adapting tasks and environments, recommending assistive equipment, and documenting outcomes that facilities and payers depend on. California contracts span skilled nursing, home health, inpatient, and outpatient settings, so tell your recruiter which settings fit your experience and which you want to grow into.
Submit your profile in two minutes and a We Care Staffing recruiter will follow up with current openings that fit your license, experience, and preferred setting. Prefer to talk? Call (866) 680-2920 or email careers@we-carestaffing.com.
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