How Much Does a Psychologist Make?

Becoming a psychologist is a long journey, requiring 8-12 years of education and training after high school.

You’ll need to earn either a Ph.D. in psychology or a doctor of psychology (Psy.D.) in order to work as a psychologist. Internships are part of most graduate programs, and you’ll have to complete additional supervised experience hours after you complete your doctoral program.

So, after all those years spent in school, how much does a psychologist make? Psychologists earned a median annual salary of $94,310 as of May 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

If you’re thinking about this career path, read on to learn more about your salary potential as a psychologist.

While the median annual salary for psychologists is just over $94,000, the bottom 10% of earners make around $55,000 per year. The highest earners — those in the top 10% — earn over $157,000 per year.

The amount of experience you have, your employer, and where you live can all affect how much you earn. The BLS projects the number of jobs for psychologists to grow by 7% between 2023 and 2033, which is faster than the average growth rate for all jobs.

The amount of money you’ll make as a psychologist can vary widely depending on which state you live in. For example, psychologists in California ($130,940), Nevada ($130,120), and Kansas ($127,940) earn the highest average annual salaries in the profession, according to 2024 BLS data.

Oftentimes, higher wages are a result of states’ higher cost of living. More affordable states like Vermont and Maine pay under $90,000 a year on average.

West Virginia, one of the cheapest states to live in, has the lowest average salary, with psychologists earning $63,650 annually.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll get a raise, we can offer some tips on how to make yourself an attractive employee and potentially raise your psychology salary.

Choosing an in-demand specialization can help you increase your psychology salary. For example, BLS data shows that industrial-organizational psychologists earn a median salary of $109,840 per year, whereas clinical and counseling psychologists and school psychologists earn $95,830 and $86,930, respectively.

Other in-demand specializations you can pursue include forensic psychology, neuropsychology, and chemical dependence counseling.

If you start a private practice, you’ll be a business owner. And that means you won’t have a salary cap as you would in traditional employment.

To run a successful private practice, you’ll need both business and psychology skills. Also, it helps to specialize in a niche area like trauma recovery or LGBTQ+ mental health.

Offering niche treatments is another strategy to increase your psychology salary. Specializing in an area of interest allows you to practice with specific populations, treatments, or illnesses. You can also charge more for your services.

Some specialization options aside from trauma and LGBTQ+ therapy include neurodivergent, marriage, or PTSD-focused therapy. Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) are a few niche treatment options.

Another way to differentiate yourself from other psychologists is to offer extended evening and weekend appointments. This helps people with career or family obligations who need to meet outside traditional work hours.

With a Psy.D. or Ph.D. in psychology, you can teach at a college or university. Higher education needs psychologists who can design and teach university courses, educating and training future psychology professionals.

According to the BLS, psychology professors earned a median salary of $80,330 in 2024.

There are various ways to demonstrate your psychology expertise, positioning yourself as a thought leader in the field. And doing so can bring in extra income or raise your salary.

You can lead workshops for corporate or nonprofit organizations, speak at psychology conferences, or join the editorial board of an industry journal.

You can also publish research papers in peer-reviewed journals or write a book. One strategy for book writing is to turn your dissertation or research articles into a publishable manuscript.