Psychologist Salary by Type and State

BLS publishes wages for four psychologist occupations, each a median annual wage from the May 2025 OEWS survey. Clinical and counseling psychologists are one occupation in BLS’s tables, so there is no separate clinical figure; the clinical psychologist salary page covers that group in depth. BLS defines the “all other” group in one line, “All psychologists not listed separately,” so the group holds forensic psychologists, neuropsychologists and several other kinds, and its median is not a wage for any one of them. Industrial-organizational psychologists, BLS says in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, apply psychological principles to workplace problems.

A median psychologist salary hides the spread. For each occupation below the band runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile annual wage and the darker part from the 25th to the 75th, with the median marked. A percentile is a point in the pay distribution: the 90th percentile is the wage that nine in ten workers in the occupation earned less than. It is not a measure of experience.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook lists the median annual wage for psychologists as a group in some of the top industries they work in, for May 2025. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals led at $130,960.

For clinical and counseling psychologists (SOC 19-3033), the highest state medians in May 2025 among states with a BLS employment count were Oregon ($134,350), New Jersey ($127,090) and Alaska ($124,270). A state with few psychologists can lead a list of medians on a small count, so each row shows how many BLS counted. Select a state for its psychologist salary by percentile.

By headcount, California had the most clinical and counseling psychologists in May 2025, about 12,840, followed by New York and Illinois.

BLS projects that psychologist employment will grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations, with about 11,300 openings a year, many of them from workers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. Growth differs by type. These job counts come from BLS Employment Projections, which include the self-employed, so they differ from the OEWS counts elsewhere on this page.

For school psychologists BLS adds a caution: projected declines over the decade in the school-age population and student enrollment may limit demand in elementary and secondary schools.

BLS reports wages by occupation, not by degree. For clinical and counseling psychologists, the occupation behind clinical psychologist pay, it says: “Clinical and counseling psychologists typically need a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in psychology or a Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree.” It adds: “Clinical and counseling psychologists are licensed in every state.” (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Psychologists, read October 14, 2026.) A doctorate is one requirement for that route and a state license another; the degree does not confer the license.

The programs that train psychologists at the doctoral level are ranked on this site: see the best APA-accredited PsyD programs. What the graduates of each school earn is on the PsyD salary page, and the steps to licensure are in how to become a licensed psychologist.

Each page below gives a state’s psychologist salary: the median annual wage for clinical and counseling psychologists, its percentiles and its school psychologist pay, with metropolitan areas on 47 of them, all from the May 2025 BLS estimates. There are 49 pages: the 47 states with a published BLS median, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.