Average Pay in Private Practice vs Agency Work

Average Pay in Private Practice vs Agency Work

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I get asked pretty often what the difference in pay is between agency work and private practice. And honestly, since pay can vary so widely in both private practice and agency work, it’s quite difficult to pinpoint a precise answer to this question.

However, I set out to find any hard data available to help attempt to answer this question. In this video, I compile this information to share the difference in pay between private practice and agency work.

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This video is geared for therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field.

Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

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According to Glassdoor, as of January 2020 the average mental health therapist in the U.S. earns $48,905 per year. This data is based on the salaries of 2,793 therapists at the time of this recording.
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-mental-health-therapist-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN1_KO3,26.htm

To put that number into perspective, according to the Bureau of labor and Statistics, among those in the U.S. working full-time, the average individual income in 2019 was $917 per week, or $47,684 per year.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf

According to Zip recruiter, the average annual salary for mental health therapists is $65k - much higher than Glassdoor’s number of $49k. However, a closer look at Ziprecruiter’s breakdown shows that most mental health therapists are making around $50k, with a few outliers pushing towards 6 figures, causing the overall average to look higher than what most are earning. So in this sense, the data seems relatively consistent between Glassdoor and ziprecruiter.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Mental-Health-Therapist-Salary

In other words, the average therapist is earning about the same as the average full-time worker in the U.S.

But, that certainly does NOT mean that all therapists are earning the national average for the field. Let’s take a closer look at a few types of therapist jobs:

According to Ziprecruiter, the average clinical therapist earns $55k per year. Upon closer look at some listings in the “clinical therapist” category in my area, this title seems to often reflect jobs in various agency settings.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Clinical-Therapist-Salary
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Jobs/Clinical-Therapist

Meanwhile, Ziprecruiter reports the average annual salary for a therapist in private practice is about $98k. But a closer look shows that most people are in the $60k-$96k range. The average is thrown off by a spall percentage of outliers making even over $200k per year.

Of course, this is based on Zip recruiter’s job listings. So these numbers reflect the salary of someone employed in a group practice, rather than running their own practice. But, the pay is still significantly higher than the average therapist.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Private-Practice-Therapist-Salary
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Jobs/Private-Practice-Therapist

A quick check on Glassdoor shows no one reporting their private practice salary. And this makes sense, since people are typically posting to Glassdoor so others can learn about the employer. No need to do that when we employ ourselves!
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-private-practice-therapist-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN1_KO3,29.htm

So if the question is how much someone CAN earn in private practice, well, the ceiling is quite high.

I’m guessing a significant number of people watching this video are less concerned about the average pay for agency work and private practice, and more wondering how much money it’s possible to earn in private practice, and whether this number is higher than what they’re currently earning at an agency job.

Видео Average Pay in Private Practice vs Agency Work канала Private Practice Skills