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How to hire a clinical social worker

Clinical social worker hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring clinical social workers in the United States:

  • The median cost to hire a clinical social worker is $1,633.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
  • Small businesses spend $1,105 per clinical social worker on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
  • It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
  • There are a total of 292,329 clinical social workers in the US, and there are currently 124,816 job openings in this field.
  • New York, NY, has the highest demand for clinical social workers, with 154 job openings.

How to hire a clinical social worker, step by step

To hire a clinical social worker, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a clinical social worker:

Here's a step-by-step clinical social worker hiring guide:

  • Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Write a clinical social worker job description
  • Step 5: Post your job
  • Step 6: Interview candidates
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical social worker
  • Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a clinical social worker do?

A clinical social worker is an individual in social work, which provides help to individuals in need of improving their lives and their well-being. Clinical social workers must work with different individuals to help them address difficulties that they are trying to overcome. To perform counseling services, clinical social workers must take and pass the professional licensure examination. They also help disadvantaged individuals connect to resources and services that they may benefit from.

Learn more about the specifics of what a clinical social worker does
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    Before you post your clinical social worker job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a clinical social worker for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a clinical social worker to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a clinical social worker that fits the bill.

    This list presents clinical social worker salaries for various positions.

    Type of Clinical Social WorkerDescriptionHourly rate
    Clinical Social WorkerSocial workers help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives. One group of social workers—clinical social workers—also diagnose and treat mental, behavioral, and emotional issues.$20-44
    Family TherapistA Family Therapist works with couples and families to help ameliorate marital and family issues. They can work in hospitals, treatment programs, government agencies, health organizations, and private practices.$17-32
    Addictions CounselorAn Addictions Counselor helps patients overcome personal addiction problems, such as dependence on drugs, alcohol, and other substances. They evaluate the condition of their client through examining, asking questions, and recommending the proper treatment options.$15-32
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Social Work
    • Patients
    • Behavioral Health
    • Patient Care
    • Community Resources
    • MSW
    • Discharge Planning
    • Psychosocial Assessments
    • Home Health
    • Family Therapy
    • Rehabilitation
    • Mental Illness
    • Social Services
    • Mental Health
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Understand manage care, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
    • Screen, identify, diagnose using DSM nomenclature, treat and manage mental health and/or substance abuse problems.
    • Provide clinical services to patients in rehabilitation and oncology including assessment, crisis intervention, grief therapy, and discharge planning.
    • Provide individual, group, family therapy, team coordination, discharge planning, utilization review and MSW student supervision.
    • Participate in weekly interdisciplinary team meetings to determine Medicare length of skil nursing stay.
    • Facilitate therapy, symptom management, and rehabilitation groups for mental health clients in partial hospitalization setting.
    More clinical social worker duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in the clinical social worker job description is a good way to get more applicants. A clinical social worker salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

    For example, the average salary for a clinical social worker in Louisiana may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level clinical social worker. Additionally, a clinical social worker with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

    Average clinical social worker salary

    $63,056yearly

    $30.32 hourly rate

    Entry-level clinical social worker salary
    $42,000 yearly salary
    Updated January 23, 2026

    Average clinical social worker salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1California$90,357$43
    2District of Columbia$83,409$40
    3Oregon$81,195$39
    4Connecticut$77,341$37
    5New Jersey$77,235$37
    6Washington$74,533$36
    7Pennsylvania$71,650$34
    8Indiana$71,408$34
    9Vermont$69,953$34
    10Nevada$65,483$31
    11Massachusetts$64,938$31
    12New York$64,713$31
    13Maryland$64,481$31
    14Illinois$61,875$30
    15Utah$60,742$29
    16Colorado$60,145$29
    17Maine$55,627$27
    18Missouri$55,103$26
    19Kentucky$54,921$26
    20Virginia$53,747$26

    Average clinical social worker salary by company

    RankCompanyAverage salaryHourly rateJob openings
    1Tucson Electric Power$89,092$42.833
    2CVS Health$86,709$41.69529
    3Favorite Healthcare Staffing$85,919$41.311
    4Oculus$85,809$41.25
    5Encompass Health$85,701$41.2067
    6Careerstaff Unlimited - A Genesis Healthcare Company$84,807$40.77
    7Aetna$83,453$40.12
    8Health Advocates$81,564$39.2122
    9Aya Healthcare$80,782$38.841
    10University of California-Berkeley$79,012$37.99
    11MCR Health Inc$78,978$37.973
    12Health First$78,466$37.7212
    13Accra Care, Inc.$77,816$37.411
    14Key Rehabilitation$77,048$37.0414
    15US Oncology Holdings Inc$76,985$37.0127
    16FHI 360$76,835$36.942
    17Foundation Health Services$76,757$36.903
    18Moda Health$76,500$36.781
    19Guidestar$76,428$36.74136
    20Children's Hospital Colorado$76,007$36.5412
  4. Writing a clinical social worker job description

    A job description for a clinical social worker role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a clinical social worker job description:

    Clinical social worker job description example

    US-OR-Portland

    Type: Regular Full-Time
    Emanuel Medical Ctr campus

    Overview

    Are you committed to holistic patient-centered care? Do you thrive providing adult and pediatric care in a variety of settings? If you want to grow as an empathetic advocate for the needs of vulnerable populations, you may be perfect for our Legacy team.

    With compassion and commitment, Clinical Social Workers in Palliative Care embody the Legacy mission of making life better for others. They do this by evaluating the psychosocial and mental health issues of patients to ensure transition planning, crisis management, and planning/coordination of both internal and external services.

    You will assess intervention strategies to address behavioral and addiction issues, as well as end-of-life care and informed decision making about therapeutic options.

    This work calls for broad knowledge of the principles of social work and the ability to apply them, integrating knowledge of normal development and the aging process, changes related to illness, and the needs of patients with acute, chronic, and terminal illness.

    Our Clinical Social Workers are advocates not just for our patients, but also for their surrogates, family members, caregivers and health care providers.

    Legacy Emanuel Medical Center campus in North Portland plays a vital role as a local and regional leader in serious clinical illness or injury. With around-the-clock expertise for critical health issues, including experts in trauma, heart care, burns, significant wounds, stroke, brain surgery and more, Legacy Emanuel is central to the health of our community and critical to the care of the Northwest.



    Responsibilities

    Provides social work services in a variety of adult and pediatric settings across the health care continuum with a focus on holistic patient-centered care and attention to the needs of vulnerable populations.

    Works both independently and collaboratively as part of a multi-disciplinary team in Palliative Care.

    Key services include (but are not limited to) comprehensive evaluation of psychosocial and mental health status, legal and safety considerations, brief counseling, transition planning, crisis management and planning and coordination of both internal and external services.

    Services may also include assessment and intervention strategies to address behavioral health and addiction issues, as well as end-of-life care and informed decision making about therapeutic options and communication with surrogates, family members, caregivers and health care providers.

    May also provide education and facilitate and/or lead support or treatment groups. Throughout the care continuum, social workers will aim to enhance the capacity of people to address their own needs.



    Qualifications

    Education:

    Master of Social Work degree from an accredited School of Social Work required.

    Experience:

    This position requires a minimum of one-year relevant experience. Experience in one or more of the following areas strongly preferred:

    Care Management

    Behavioral Health

    Social Services

    Addictions treatment

    Skills:

    Broad knowledge of the principles of social work and the ability to apply them, integrating knowledge of normal development and the aging process, changes related to illness, and the needs of patients with acute, chronic and terminal illness.

    Knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, and treatment procedures. This includes acute, chronic, and traumatic illnesses/injuries; common medications and their effects/side effects; and medical terminology.

    Ability to independently conduct psychosocial assessments and provide psychosocial treatment to a wide variety of individuals from various socio-economic, cultural, ethnic, educational and other diverse backgrounds.

    Demonstrated strong organizational skills, including an ability to effectively triage patient and family needs.

    Ability to address the psychosocial functioning and needs of patients and their family members and to formulate and implement a treatment plan, identifying the patient's problems, strengths, weaknesses, coping skills and assistance needed, in collaboration with the patient, family and interdisciplinary treatment team.

    Ability to engage in patient/family discussions of health care goals and decisions with attention to cultural and health literacy implications.

    Demonstrated problem solving skills and the ability to deal effectively with complex situations.

    Ability to consider the differential influences of the environment, society and culture and develop cultural competence in practice that promotes inclusiveness in the work environment.

    Demonstrated strength in verbal and written communication for effective and appropriate interactions with patients, families, physicians and staff.

    Ability to effectively engage in care coordination and transition planning.

    Demonstrated ability to locate, utilize and advocate for patient/family access to health care and community resources.

    Demonstrated ability to organize and lead clinical groups.

    Ability to navigate electronic medical record and effectively utilize basic computer programs.

    Knowledge of legal, regulatory and compliance requirements and an ability to be a resource to all team members regarding such issues and knowledge of current health care environment.

    Keyboard skills and ability to navigate electronic systems applicable to job functions.

    LEGACY'S VALUES IN ACTION:

    Follows guidelines set forth in Legacy's Values in Action

    Equal Opportunity Employer/Vet/Disabled



    PI

  5. Post your job

    To find the right clinical social worker for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

    • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
    • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with clinical social workers they would recommend.
    • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit clinical social workers who meet your education requirements.
    • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.
    Post your job online:
    • Post your clinical social worker job on Zippia to find and recruit clinical social worker candidates who meet your exact specifications.
    • Use field-specific websites.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    Recruiting clinical social workers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

    It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new clinical social worker

    Once you've selected the best clinical social worker candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

    It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

    Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new clinical social worker. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

  8. Go through the hiring process checklist

    • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
    • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
    • Define job responsibilities and requirements
    • Establish budget and timeline
    • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
    • Write job description
    • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
    • Promote the job internally
    • Process applications through applicant tracking system
    • Review resumes and cover letters
    • Shortlist candidates for screening
    • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
    • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
    • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
    • Conduct background checks on top candidates
    • Check references of top candidates
    • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
    • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
    • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
    • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
    • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
    • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a clinical social worker?

Before you start to hire clinical social workers, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire clinical social workers pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

You can expect to pay around $63,056 per year for a clinical social worker, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for clinical social workers in the US typically range between $20 and $44 an hour.

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