Occupational Therapist Salary in Georgia 2026,
$104,010 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $104,010 a year, or $50.01 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 3.7% above the national median of $100,330. The band runs $75,290 at the 10th percentile to $128,610 at the 90th, with the middle half between $82,320 and $118,560. Setting and specialisation rather than years of practice determine where inside that range a therapist sits.

Dalton at $111,580, then Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell $106,160, Athens-Clarke County $101,080, Macon-Bibb County $100,680 and Augusta-Richmond County $99,880. A small north Georgia market leading the state's largest metro is a recruitment premium — smaller and rural Georgia markets struggle to attract therapists and price accordingly.

Through the Georgia State Board of Occupational Therapy, which operates under the state's professional licensing structure. The route is a master's or doctoral degree from an accredited occupational therapy programme, completion of supervised Level II fieldwork, the national certification examination, and application to the board with background clearance. The licence is what authorises practice in every setting — school systems, hospitals, home health and outpatient clinics alike.

Strongly, and from an under-supplied base. National projections put growth at 13.8% through 2034, among the fastest for any licensed health profession, while Georgia employs occupational therapists at only 0.72 times the national rate on about 3,650 practitioners. That combination — fast-growing demand against a thin existing workforce — is what supports a 3.7% premium over the national median and why smaller markets like Dalton publish above Atlanta.

It works differently, which affects the annual figure. School-based occupational therapy is delivered through local school systems and generally follows a school-year calendar rather than a twelve-month contract, so an annual wage comparison against year-round clinical practice is not like-for-like. Many Georgia therapists combine a school post with contract or per-diem work in home health or skilled nursing during the year, and Georgia's flat tax rate means that additional income is not taxed more heavily than the base.

Because supply has not followed demand, particularly outside the Atlanta metro. Occupational therapy requires a master's or doctoral degree, and the number of accredited programme places has grown more slowly than the demand generated by an ageing population, expanded school-based services and the growth of home health. Georgia's rural counties compete for graduates against metropolitan employers everywhere in the south-east, and often lose. A location quotient of 0.72 alongside a 3.7% pay premium is exactly the signature of a market where employers cannot recruit enough people at the going rate — and Dalton's $111,580 is what that looks like in one place.

The estimate pools settings with quite different working patterns — school-based practice on a school-year calendar, home health paid per visit, contract and per-diem work, and salaried hospital and outpatient posts — and reports them all as annual wages. That mixing explains a good deal of the band from $75,290 to $128,610 without any difference in skill or seniority. With about 3,650 therapists statewide, the smaller metro rows including Dalton's rest on modest samples and are better read as directional signals about recruitment difficulty.

Setting first — home health and skilled nursing generally pay above school-based practice, and contract and per-diem work above salaried posts, which is much of the distance from the $82,320 quarter-point to the $118,560 seventy-fifth percentile. Specialisation second, with hand therapy, paediatric and neurological rehabilitation caseloads carrying the most. Willingness to work in under-served markets third, which the Dalton figure of $111,580 prices explicitly. And combining employment types fourth, which Georgia's flat tax makes administratively simple.