2026 Edition · An annual reference on what work pays

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

United States. Estimated employment 132,810, with pages for 6 metro areas below.

Data released May 2025 BLS OEWS · SOC 21-1023
Fig. 1 — The wage rule

Where you sit in the distribution

Drag the marker, or type a figure
$60,280 · 50th
$39,74010th
$47,07025th
$60,28050th
$79,73075th
$104,17090th

That is the medianhalf of people in this occupation in the US earn more.

Table 1 — By metro area

Where it pays

Every published Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers page, by median pay. Employment is the BLS estimate for the metro.

Metro areaMedianEmployment
New York, NY$82,45012,090
Kiryas Joel, NY$79,870410
Albany, NY$76,970530
Utica, NY$73,200190
Kingston, NY$71,790120
Glens Falls, NY$71,710110
Sources

How this page was made

Wage data
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
Employment
132,810 employed in this occupation nationally (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
Occupation
SOC 21-1023, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers. Mapped to our taxonomy as mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-workers.

Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.