The 10 States With The Highest Mental Health Worker Salaries For 2023

Without fail, in surveys across basically every demographic, the number one most important aspect of a job for most people is the salary — how much do mental health workers get paid where I live?

And while there are many things to go into how much you, specifically, can expect to make, there’s really good data for average salaries for mental health workers by state across America broken down by seniority level. So while your city may be slightly different than the state average, these averages give you a rough sense of what to expect for your salary.

The state with the best salary for mental health workers after this adjustment? That would be Mental Health And Substance Abuse Social Workers.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the top ten states for mental health worker salaries:

To better understand how mental health worker salaries change across America, we decided to take a look the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average pay for mental health workers by state.

Additionally, we wanted to adjust the salary based on the cost of living in a state — because your salary goes further in North Carolina than it does in California.

Let’s take a look at how we got here and a full ranking of all the states.

How we determined mental health worker pay by state

As we mentioned earlier, we took the average annual salary data for mental health workers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — specifically their ‘Occupational Employment Statistics.’

To make the comparison of salaries apples to apples across states, we also took into account the cost of living in each state.

We then created an index by dividing the average wage for a state by the cost of living relative to average. As an example, the cost of living index in California is 135.9 and the average pay is $79450, so our index value would be:

$79,450 * (100 / 135.9) = $58,462

We then ranked every state on this criteria with the state with the highest salary index ranking as highest average salary for mental health workers.

Here’s a look at the full ranking for all states.

Detailed List Of Mental Health Worker Salaries By State

Rank	State	Adjusted Salary	Average Wage	Cost Of Living
1	New Jersey	$81,534	$99,390	121.9
2	Wyoming	$62,941	$57,780	91.8
3	Minnesota	$60,813	$61,300	100.8
4	Iowa	$60,681	$55,220	91.0
5	Michigan	$59,213	$52,700	89.0
6	California	$58,462	$79,450	135.9
7	North Carolina	$58,423	$54,860	93.9
8	Nevada	$58,073	$59,990	103.3
9	New York	$57,786	$75,700	131.0
10	Rhode Island	$56,669	$68,400	120.7
11	Washington	$56,558	$59,500	105.2
12	Connecticut	$56,108	$71,650	127.7
13	Illinois	$55,560	$52,560	94.6
14	Indiana	$55,262	$49,460	89.5
15	New Mexico	$54,725	$52,810	96.5
16	North Dakota	$53,822	$53,500	99.4
17	Virginia	$53,730	$54,160	100.8
18	Colorado	$53,362	$55,390	103.8
19	Maine	$53,095	$58,830	110.8
20	Wisconsin	$52,758	$51,070	96.8
21	Kansas	$52,413	$47,120	89.9
22	New Hampshire	$52,094	$60,950	117.0
23	Texas	$51,764	$46,950	90.7
24	Mississippi	$51,292	$44,060	85.9
25	Georgia	$51,115	$46,720	91.4
26	Utah	$50,978	$47,410	93.0
27	Ohio	$50,309	$47,190	93.8
28	Louisiana	$49,388	$46,820	94.8
29	Kentucky	$49,237	$44,560	90.5
30	Delaware	$48,560	$49,240	101.4
31	Idaho	$48,284	$44,470	92.1
32	Arkansas	$48,231	$42,010	87.1
33	Missouri	$47,798	$43,210	90.4
34	Tennessee	$46,073	$41,190	89.4
35	Oklahoma	$45,952	$40,990	89.2
36	Oregon	$45,553	$52,660	115.6
37	Florida	$44,893	$44,130	98.3
38	Arizona	$44,612	$43,720	98.0
39	West Virginia	$44,561	$41,620	93.4
40	South Carolina	$43,245	$42,900	99.2
41	South Dakota	$43,085	$44,680	103.7
42	Pennsylvania	$43,047	$43,650	101.4
43	Maryland	$42,940	$53,890	125.5
44	Vermont	$42,774	$51,800	121.1
45	Alaska	$41,311	$54,160	131.1
46	Montana	$40,585	$40,910	100.8
47	Massachusetts	$40,299	$53,760	133.4
48	Alabama	$40,219	$36,680	91.2
49	Nebraska	$39,465	$36,150	91.6
50	Hawaii	$38,302	$64,310	167.9

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Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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