Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors

The $59,350 midpoint sits $4.48 an hour above the $50,020 typical American job. That is a 19% premium, and premiums are rationed: whatever rations this one is the thing standing between you and Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors.

491,930 people do this work. An occupation this large has a published, well-known going rate — which means less scope to be underpaid and less scope to negotiate above it.

Counselling and social work suit people who can hold a caseload of problems they cannot fix and still come back on Monday. Emotional stamina is the binding constraint, not credentials.

No verified preparation time is on file for Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.

$47,100 to $76,530 — 1.6x, or $2,452 a month between the quarters. An unremarkable spread, which means the useful planning number for Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors is the bottom of it rather than the middle.

At $47,100 — $22.64 an hour — the 25th percentile of this field sits essentially at the $50,020 all-occupation midpoint. Being in the bottom quarter of Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors still means being paid like the average American worker.

Avoid it if you need to fix things. Most of this caseload cannot be fixed by anyone at your desk.

There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 491,930 people employed as Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.

At 1.6x between $47,100 and $76,530 this is a normally shaped occupation. $59,350 is what the middle of Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors earns after the years it takes to get there, which is not the same as what it offers you now.

In cash terms the middle half of Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors runs $47,100 to $76,530 — $29,430 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $59,350.

Getting to $76,530, the 75th percentile, is worth $17,180 a year more than the $59,350 midpoint and $29,430 more than the $47,100 a quarter of Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors settle for.

The climb from $59,350 to $76,530 is $17,180, against $12,250 down to $47,100. Rather more of the range sits above the midpoint than below it, so the realistic upside in Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors is larger than the realistic downside.

On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors is $28.53 an hour. The quarters sit at $22.64 and $36.79, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.