Occupational Therapist Salary in Dallas, TX 2026,
$106,110 Median | BLS + Market Data

Dallas occupational therapists earn a BLS median of $106,110/yr, or $51.01 an hour, published for the combined Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro, with a band of $76,960 to $145,780. That is level with the Texas statewide median and 5.8% above the US median. Setting rather than seniority explains most of the range.

No — the metroplex is level with the Texas statewide median. Texas OT pay is uniform between metros because the licence, practice act and payer mix are identical statewide, and per-visit home health rates are similar across the state's urban areas. What the metroplex adds is the volume of settings available.

Substantially. Per-visit rates plus mileage across the metroplex's spread-out geography are how a Dallas OT reaches the $145,780 top of the published band. The trade-offs are unpaid driving time, variable caseload volume and a documentation burden considerably heavier than clinic practice.

A Texas occupational therapist licence issued by the Texas Board of Occupational Therapy Examiners under the Executive Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Examiners: an accredited OT programme, the NBCOT examination and the Texas jurisprudence requirement. The licence is statewide and covers the whole metroplex.

Reasonably, with a caveat. Pay clears the national median by 5.8%, no state income tax applies, and national employment growth is projected at 13.8%. But employment concentration here is 0.82 times the national average, so hospital and specialised clinic roles turn over slowly and much of the available work is contract or home health.

Occupational therapy in most metros tops out around the upper reaches of hospital pay scales. In the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region it goes considerably higher, because home health and school-contract therapy are per-visit or per-session businesses in a metro with enormous distances and rapidly growing suburban districts. Agencies must pay to fill those routes, and therapists who can manage the volume capture the difference.

OEWS covers employees, so OTs contracting independently in home health and school settings — a substantial group here — are inconsistently captured, likely understating the top. The estimate also excludes mileage reimbursement, which materially changes the economics of home health work, and it blends the whole metroplex into one figure.

A metroplex OT's income is largely determined by the setting they commit to within their first few years. Hospital and inpatient rehabilitation offers mentorship, specialisation pathways and a ladder topping out near the upper-middle of this band. Home health and contract work offer immediate access to the top with no ladder above. Moving from institutional practice to community-based work is straightforward; moving back after several years is harder, because acute employers hire on recent acute experience.