Occupational Therapists
SOC 29-1122 · 2024-2034
Assess, plan, and organize rehabilitative programs that help build or restore vocational, homemaking, and daily living skills, as well as general independence, to persons with disabilities or developmental delays. Use therapeutic techniques, adapt the individual's environment, teach skills, and modify specific tasks that present barriers to the individual.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $127,995per year
- Projected openings
- 10,780
- Projected change
- +26.7%
- Usually needs
- Master's degree
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth
The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Monitoring
- Active Listening
- Service Orientation
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
- Judgment and Decision Making
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $138,381 | 490 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County) | $137,488 | 40 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $134,277 | 350 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $133,358 | 70 |
| Chico MSA (Butte County) | $132,485 | 50 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $132,465 | 640 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $129,650 | 60 |
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $128,068 | 20 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $127,647 | 20 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $127,267 | 490 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $127,052 | 40 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $126,336 | 50 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $123,179 | 90 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $122,799 | 100 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $121,978 | 2,220 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $121,721 | 100 |
| Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties) | $116,246 | 20 |
| Salinas MSA (Monterey County) | $115,434 | 80 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $115,095 | 860 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $112,821 | 870 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $112,003 | 30 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $112,003 | 120 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $111,973 | 650 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $110,576 | 140 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $110,288 | 170 |
| Redding MSA (Shasta County) | $107,217 | 20 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $103,077 | 90 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $103,005 | 60 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $87,945
- A quarter earn under
- $106,860
- Half earn under
- $127,995
- Three quarters earn under
- $140,198
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $162,999
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupational Therapy Assistants | $83,841 | 6,200 | +32.4% |
| Physical Therapists | $127,666 | 17,850 | +26% |
| Physical Therapist Assistants | $85,215 | 18,930 | +41.1% |
| Recreational Therapists | $100,918 | 1,870 | +15.8% |
| Physicians, All Other | $289,473 | 9,800 | +9.5% |
| Psychiatric Technicians | $50,516 | 16,680 | +27.5% |
Programs that train for this job — 1
Cert. of Accomplishment Health & Human Services: Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Contra Costa College · San Pablo · $913