Occupational Therapist Salary 2026
OTs earn a median of $100,330 (BLS, May 2025) and the field is growing 15% to 2035. See how OT compares with PT, and what the OTA gap really is.
Occupational Therapist Salary and Why the Outlook Matters More
Occupational therapist salary sits at a median of $100,330 a year, or $48.24 an hour, in the BLS release for May 2025. That is 97 percent above the $50,980 covering all US occupations.
The more interesting number is 15 percent. That is the growth BLS projects for occupational therapy through 2035, and it is higher than any other profession we staff.
What the Figures Actually Say
- Median
- $100,330
- The occupational therapist pay figure most quoted. $48.24 an hour
- Growth to 2035
- 15%
- Much faster than average. The highest of any role we staff
- Jobs in 2025
- 169,600
- A mid sized profession growing quickly
- Against all occupations
- +97%
- Nearly double the median US wage
OT salary, occupational therapist pay and OT wages all point at the same BLS figure. One note on the distribution: several sites publish a full percentile range for this profession built on older survey years and present it as current. We have left it out rather than repeat a stale number. If you are asking about OT starting salary specifically, the honest answer is that the current entry level figure is not something we can source properly, and we would rather say so than estimate it.
How OT Pay Compares With Physical Therapy
$102,760 is where physical therapy lands. Occupational therapy lands at $100,330. The distance between the two professions is $2,430 a year, somewhere near two percent.
Most people assume it is wider. Both professions require a doctoral or master's level entry, both work across the same settings, and both are licensed state by state. On pay they are effectively level.
Where they differ is outlook. BLS projects 15 percent growth for occupational therapy and 12 percent for physical therapy through 2035. Neither is a reason to choose one over the other, but if you are weighing the two and have been told PT pays considerably more, that is not what the data shows.
Specialty and setting
Pediatrics, Schools and Home Health
Of all the specialty questions in this profession, pediatric OT salary is asked most. The usual caveat applies. BLS counts occupational therapists as one occupation, with no pediatric breakdown. Any precise occupational therapy pediatric salary found elsewhere has been estimated from job adverts.
What is observable is the setting pattern. Home health sits at the top of the range and school based practice at the bottom, with a gap wide enough to matter. Part of that is the calendar. School contracts usually run an academic year rather than a full one, so a per day school rate reads worse than it is until you count the weeks you are not working.
The same calendar shapes speech pathologist pay, a $97,870 median profession compressed into the same academic year.
Most pediatric OT work sits in schools and early intervention, which is why the specialty question and the setting question are really the same question.
Two Questions Worth Answering Straight
Is the OTA gap worth closing?
An occupational therapy assistant records $72,300 at the median. A therapist records $100,330. The distance is $28,030 a year. Aides form a third and separate occupation again, down at $39,160.
The gap is real and so is the cost of closing it, since moving from OTA to OT means a master's or doctoral program rather than a bridge course. Worth noting that BLS projects 20 percent growth for assistants, faster even than for therapists.
Does a doctorate pay more?
Doctor of occupational therapy salary is a common search and BLS does not break pay out by degree level. What is known is that the OTD is now an entry route rather than an advanced one at many programs. Holding it no longer signals seniority to an employer the way it once might have.
How Contract Pay Is Structured
Nothing above describes agency work, where OT pay is quoted weekly and arrives in two parts. First an hourly rate the tax system counts as income. Then stipends it does not, available only where a genuine home exists elsewhere.
Occupational therapy adds one variable physical therapy does not. School based contracts are frequently written per day or per academic term instead of per hour. Compare one of those with an hourly clinical rate and you will get a misleading answer unless you adjust for the calendar first.
Establish the hourly rate, establish the calendar, and then compare.
Ask us what a contract pays
Tell us the settings you work, the states you are licensed in, and whether schools interest you. A real figure follows.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do occupational therapists make?
BLS recorded a median of $100,330 for May 2025, which is $48.24 an hour. Set beside the $50,980 covering every US occupation, occupational therapy pays 97 percent more. The profession employed 169,600 people in 2025.
Does PT pay more than OT?
Physical therapy pays about two percent more than occupational therapy, which is far closer than most people assume. The May 2025 BLS release records a $102,760 median for physical therapists against $100,330 for occupational therapists. Occupational therapy is projected to grow faster, at 15 percent against 12 through 2035.
What is the pay difference between an OT and an OTA?
Occupational therapists earn roughly $28,030 a year more than assistants at the median. BLS records $100,330 for therapists and $72,300 for assistants, both for May 2025, with aides forming a third occupation again at $39,160. Moving up requires a full graduate program rather than a bridge course.
Is occupational therapy a good career financially?
Pay in occupational therapy runs at nearly twice the all occupations median, and BLS projects 15 percent growth through 2035, faster than any profession we staff. The entry cost sits on the other side of that. A graduate degree is mandatory and most therapists begin their careers carrying significant debt.
Every figure above is BLS May 2025, code 29-1122 and 31-2011. Links throughout. Last reviewed October 2026.