Occupational Therapist Salary in New York 2026,
$96,390 Median | BLS Data by City

The published New York figure is $96,390 a year, or $46.34 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $64,770 at the 10th percentile to $133,700 at the 90th and quartiles at $76,980 and $114,400. That is 3.9% below the national median of $100,330. The row is SOC 29-1122, Occupational Therapists — an exact match, so the below-national result is not a composition artefact.

Ithaca at $102,910, then New York-Newark-Jersey City $101,460, Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh $97,720, Kingston $95,200 and Glens Falls $95,110. The whole table spans less than eight percent, and the city does not lead it. Geography is close to irrelevant for this occupation in New York, which is unusual and which means setting and specialism carry all the weight.

The most plausible reading is payer mix. A large share of New York's occupational therapy employment sits in school-based special education and early intervention services and in Medicaid-funded settings, where rates are set administratively rather than bid in a labour market. The location quotient of 1.15 confirms the state employs plenty of occupational therapists; it is the price rather than the quantity that is held down. States with more private outpatient and hand therapy employment publish higher medians even where costs are far lower.

No. New York does not participate in the occupational therapy licensure compact, so a compact privilege does not authorise practice here. An occupational therapist moving to New York applies to the State Education Department's Office of the Professions for a New York licence, and the state additionally requires its own child abuse identification coursework. The licence must issue before practice begins.

By setting rather than by city. The gap between the $96,390 median and the $114,400 seventy-fifth percentile is largely the gap between publicly funded school and early intervention work and private outpatient, hand therapy, acute rehabilitation or independent practice. Because the metro table spans so little — from $95,110 in Glens Falls to $102,910 in Ithaca — there is no relocation within New York that achieves what a change of setting does.

Very. Across this site's New York records the norm is a premium, sometimes a large one, and the exceptions usually turn out to be composition effects — a SOC row diluted by trainees or by a broader occupation than the title. That explanation is unavailable here: SOC 29-1122 is an exact match for occupational therapists, so the $96,390 figure is measuring the right people. When an exact-match clinical occupation in New York publishes below Kentucky at $97,650 and West Virginia at $96,190, the cause has to be on the demand side, and administratively set rates in publicly funded settings are the mechanism that fits.

That the usual New York advice is inverted. For most occupations in this unit the first question is downstate or upstate, because the metro gap is worth tens of thousands. Here the entire published spread runs from $95,110 to $102,910, and New York City is not at the top of it. What remains is the vertical distance: $64,770 at the 10th percentile to $133,700 at the 90th is a wide band, and all of it is traversed by changing setting, specialising, or moving into management or independent practice. An occupational therapist in New York who plans their career geographically will not move their earnings; one who plans it by setting will.

The occupational therapy doctorate or master's is a substantial financial commitment, and this page's honest reading is that New York does not pay a premium for it — the state median is below the national one and below five peer states. The offsetting considerations are real: employment is plentiful at a 1.15 location quotient, the national outlook for the profession is strong, publicly funded school and early intervention posts are stable, and the upper band at $114,400 and $133,700 is reachable through specialism. But a student choosing New York for the wage should look at the peer-state table first, and factor in that a New York City resident pays 3.078% to 3.876% city income tax on top of a state rate reaching 10.9%.