Occupational Therapist Salary in Oklahoma 2026,
$104,300 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Oklahoma figure is $104,300 a year, or $50.14 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 4.0% above the national median of $100,330. The band runs from $68,530 at the 10th percentile to $134,420 at the 90th. That above-national median comes alongside a location quotient of just 0.66, which is what an undersupplied market looks like.

The data is consistent with one. Oklahoma employs 1,180 occupational therapists at a location quotient of 0.66 — two-thirds the national rate relative to total employment — while paying 4.0% above the national median. Densely staffed states typically show the reverse. Add limited in-state accredited programme capacity and a rural population with high post-acute care needs, and the picture is of demand outrunning local supply.

Tulsa, at $108,350 against Oklahoma City's $103,080, with Lawton at $98,940. The spread is not large, and in this state the more consequential distinction is between metro salaried posts and the rural home health, skilled nursing and school-contract work that covers much of Oklahoma — the latter often paid per visit or per contract, with correspondingly different economics.

The State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision, the same agency that licenses allopathic physicians, with an occupational therapy advisory committee attached — rather than a freestanding therapy board. Licensure requires ACOTE-accredited education, supervised fieldwork and a passing NBCOT examination result, with continuing education at renewal. Occupational therapy assistants are licensed separately.

Setting first, specialty second. Home health paid per visit, contract and travel assignments, and inpatient rehabilitation all sit toward the $121,120 seventy-fifth percentile and above, while school-district and early-intervention work sits lower with a school-year calendar in exchange. Specialty certification in hand therapy, neurorehabilitation or paediatrics adds to that, and in a market of 1,180 therapists a certified specialist has genuine scarcity value.

It means the market is clearing at a higher price than the national average because it cannot find enough therapists at the lower one. A location quotient of 0.66 says Oklahoma employs occupational therapists at two-thirds the national rate relative to its total employment; a median 4.0% above the national figure says employers are paying up rather than down. Those two facts together are diagnostic. Compare it with a densely staffed state, where a high location quotient sits alongside an ordinary wage because supply is deep. For a therapist, the practical reading is that Oklahoma offers more bargaining power than a wage table alone conveys, particularly outside the two metros where recruitment is hardest — and that the low cost of living and 4.75% top tax rate amplify the effect on disposable income.

Because the population does. BLS publishes only three metro rows for this occupation in Oklahoma — Tulsa $108,350, Oklahoma City $103,080 and Lawton $98,940 — while a large share of the state lives outside them. Rural residents receive occupational therapy through home health agencies, critical-access hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and school districts, and those services are frequently delivered by therapists covering wide catchments under per-visit or contract arrangements rather than salaried metro posts. That structure is why contract and travel therapy is a bigger part of the Oklahoma market than of a denser state's, and why the top of the band at $134,420 is more accessible here through arrangement type than through seniority.

By converting everything to annual net including costs, because the two are structured differently. A salaried metro post in Tulsa or Oklahoma City comes with benefits, a fixed caseload and a predictable calendar. A rural home health or contract role often pays per visit at rates that reach the $121,120 seventy-fifth percentile and beyond, but carries unpaid drive time across long distances, mileage and vehicle costs, self-employment tax if contracted, and no employer benefit contribution. Documentation load in home health is also heavier than it appears. The rural arrangement frequently wins on net income and loses on predictability — and in a state with about 70 pro-rated openings a year, a therapist willing to take it has real negotiating room.