Occupation / job
Psychiatric Aides
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
At $44,910, Psychiatric Aides lands just under the $50,020 national midpoint — $5,110 apart, inside the range a single promotion or a move between states closes.
35,520 people do this work nationally. That is the size at which Psychiatric Aides becomes a career rather than a post — enough employers in a normal city that leaving one of them is a decision rather than a crisis.
Aide and nursing assistant work suits people who can do physically heavy, intimate care with patience, and who understand that the relationship with the patient is most of what the job actually is.
We carry no verified training length for Psychiatric Aides — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
$12,200 separates the bottom quarter at $37,750 from the top quarter at $49,950, a ratio of 1.3x. In a band that tight, moving up inside Psychiatric Aides pays less than moving out of it would.
The 25th percentile is $37,750 — $18.14 an hour, and $12,270 below the $50,020 typical American job. Entry-level in this field means that number, not the midpoint, so budget against it.
Avoid it if your back or knees are already a concern — the lifting is real and it does not become someone else’s job with seniority.
You will not find a "what share make it" figure here. 35,520 is a headcount of the employed, which is a numerator without a denominator — everyone who qualified and never got hired is missing from it, and we will not estimate them to complete a percentage.
What the spread tells you
At 1.3x between $37,750 and $49,950, this is a narrow distribution. $44,910 is a reliable number to plan around, which is worth something — but so is knowing that outperforming the field will not be paid for.
Put in money rather than ratios: $37,750 at the 25th percentile, $44,910 at the midpoint, $49,950 at the 75th. $12,200 separates the quarter of Psychiatric Aides at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Getting to $49,950, the 75th percentile, is worth $5,040 a year more than the $44,910 midpoint and $12,200 more than the $37,750 a quarter of Psychiatric Aides settle for.
Getting from $37,750 to the $44,910 midpoint is $7,160; getting from there to $49,950 is only $5,040. The hard part of the range is the lower half, which is also the half a newcomer starts in.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Psychiatric Aides is $21.59 an hour. The quarters sit at $18.14 and $24.01, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Psychiatric Aides for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $44,910 describes them.
With no unpaid-hours or cost data for Psychiatric Aides, the hourly figure is $44,910 over a 2,080-hour year — a unit conversion, not an adjustment.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else