An Overview of Occupational Therapist Salary

Rewarding Career Choice

With ever increasing demand across the globe for health care workers and especially in United States , career as occupational therapist could be very rewarding. In addition it could prove to be a great step towards building up a career in health care.

Initial Salaries

Salaries for the occupational therapists are not uniform in all states. For instance the median salary for such therapist in Michigan would come around $44,353 whereas it could be as high as $56,507 in California . It could go to the extent of $80,000 in some states as well.

Career Requirements

In addition the job offers numerous advancement opportunities for a person. However there are certain basic requirements for the same. For instance; salary increase could be made possible by obtaining a certificate of registered or certified occupational therapist that is called OTR and COT respectively. Conversely one can obtain cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR or can even become a hand therapist or CHR or licensed and registered therapist which means OTR/L.

Advancement Opportunities

With appropriate certifications and putting up a few years experience there are excellent opportunities for the occupational therapists to make career advancements. Even post graduate degrees are available that could help career advancement to higher medical positions and can give seniority or the scope to move to larger institutions, or even by promotion in the current organization in a supervisory role.

Other Benefits

Usually the jobs of occupational therapist carries paid holidays, pension, reimbursement of health and educational expenses, insurance, bonus, higher tax compensation at the average of 27.7% and health care assistance as other benefits. In fact if these benefits are taken into consideration, the median salary of occupational therapist would cross $100,000.

Negotiating Salaries

One of the trickiest parts for the candidate would be negotiating the occupational therapist salary . Larger organizations like the government supported health agencies and hospitals set up a fair structure of salaries and leave little room for moving into some other salary structure. On the other hand the smaller units will have less control over these aspects. Despite having appropriate job descriptions for the occupational therapist employed, they do not have a fixed salary range and leave rooms for flexible negotiation.