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Allied health

Child life specialist salary

Open child life specialist jobs post a median of $31.50 an hour, with the middle half paying $27.50–$36: about $65,500 a year full time. Measured from 40 jobs at 34 employers that state their pay, read from each employer's own job board.

$31.50
Median posted /hr
$28–$36
Middle half /hr
$65,500
A year, full time
estimate, 2,080 hours
$37.47
BLS median /hr
May 2025

The jobs themselves: Child life specialist jobs

What child life specialists are paid

Each bar counts the open jobs posting an hourly rate in its step of pay (a range at its midpoint). The middle half of employers' rates is in the darker color.

Posted hourly rates of 40 open jobs. The chart spans the 2nd to the 98th percentile; the lowest rate posted is $19.22, the highest $73.17.

Posted on open jobs

$27.50–$36/hr

Middle half of 38 employer rates (each employer's advertised range once), median $31.50. 21% of the 193 open child life specialist jobs state an hourly rate.

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Child life specialist pay by employer

What each employer posts for child life specialists, the employers with the most jobs stating pay first. An employer with at least 5 such jobs has a page of its own with every range it posts.

EmployerMedian postedPosted rangeJobs stating pay
Providence$35.25$21.67–$45.313
Kaiser Permanente$46.50$40.52–$52.402
Carle Health$30.50$22.82–$38.112
Arkansas Children's$26.25$21.70–$30.502
Ascension$25$19.22–$31.242
Sutter Health$61$48.78–$73.171
UCSF Health$56.75$55.60–$57.821
UW Medicine$53.50$53.581
NewYork-Presbyterian$43.25$40.30–$46.351
Seattle Children's$41$32.87–$49.311
RWJBarnabas Health$38.75$38.801
Loma Linda University Health$38.50$32.90–$44.251
Legacy Health$36.25$29.89–$42.741
Valley Children's Healthcare$36$29.35–$42.551
Westchester Medical Center Health Network$34.50$31.69–$37.531
Valleywise Health System$34$341
Essentia Health$33.50$26.76–$40.141
Fairview Health Services$33.25$27.34–$39.361
UMass Memorial Health$32.75$23.36–$42.041
VCU Health$32$25.03–$38.791
Advocate Health$31.75$25.30–$37.951
UPMC$31.25$24.98–$37.421
Brown University Health$30.75$23.11–$38.161
University Health System - San Antonio$29.75$22.50–$371
Inova$29.25$23.45–$35.201
University of Rochester Medical Center$28.75$24–$33.601
Sanford Health$28.50$24–$331
Tufts Medicine$27.75$24.65–$30.821
BJC HealthCare$26.75$20.17–$33.511
AdventHealth$26$261
OSF HealthCare$25.75$23.58–$27.751
Mount Sinai Health System$25.50$20.46–$30.691
Trinity Health$25.50$20.02–$31.031
MU Health Care$25$251

Median of each employer's own jobs (a range at its midpoint), and the lowest and highest rate it posts. Jobs stating pay link to the employer's open jobs.

Child life specialist jobs that state a yearly salary

Some jobs state a salary for the year instead of an hourly rate. They are measured on their own here, never converted.

33 open jobs from 16 employers state a yearly salary: a median of $69,100, the middle half $64,100 to $72,000, from $48,069 to $102,419 posted.

Best-paid open child life specialist jobs

The open jobs posting the highest hourly rates tonight, at most two from one employer.

Every open job: Child life specialist jobs

What BLS measures

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys what people employed in the occupation earn, at every level of experience. A posting advertises what a new hire is offered, so the two measure different things.

Hourly wages, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national. Each figure opens its BLS page.
BLS occupation10th pct25th pctMedian75th pct90th pctEmployed
Therapists, All Other (29-1129)$22.37 (source: BLS OEWS, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)$28.29 (source: BLS OEWS, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)$37.47 (source: BLS OEWS, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)$50.85 (source: BLS OEWS, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)$73.33 (source: BLS OEWS, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)22,640 (source: BLS OEWS, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)

The posted median ($31.50) is $5.97 below the BLS median ($37.47 (source: BLS OEWS May 2025, Therapists, All Other, opens in a new tab)). Posted ranges run from a new hire's rate to an experienced one's, and their midpoint is counted here.

Child life specialist salary: common questions

How much does a child life specialist make an hour?

Open child life specialist jobs on CareJobs.Now that state an hourly rate post a median of $31.50, with the middle half between $27.50–$36 (40 jobs from 34 employers, each employer's advertised range counted once). Postings advertise a base rate, usually before shift differentials and bonuses. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics measured a median of $37.47/hr ($77,930 a year) for therapists, all other in May 2025.

How much does a child life specialist make a year?

At the posted median of $31.50 an hour, full time (2,080 hours a year) comes to about $65,500, and the middle half to $57,200 to $74,900. That is arithmetic on the hourly rate, not a salary any job states. 33 open jobs state a yearly salary instead, a median of $69,100.

Where do these figures come from?

From the pay CareJobs.Now's open jobs state, read every night from each employer's own job board: 40 of 193 open child life specialist jobs (21%) state an hourly rate. No pay is estimated for a job that states none, "up to" ceilings and weekly travel rates are left out, and each employer's advertised range counts once in the median, so no single employer sets it.

More pay by job: Allied health

Child life specialist jobs →Every healthcare salary →Pay explorer →

Sources and method

Only pay a job states is used: a plain hourly or yearly figure or range in US dollars, read from the job's own posting. A range counts at its midpoint. In the median and the middle half each employer's advertised range counts once, so an employer posting one range in many towns does not set the figure; an employer's own figures count its jobs one by one. "Up to" ceilings, weekly travel rates and rates under a third or over three times the occupation's median are left out. The yearly estimate is the hourly rate times 2,080 hours (40 a week). A job counts under its occupation and every occupation above it, and under every state it is open in. A page exists while at least 8 jobs from 3 employers state a rate. BLS figures are as published.
  1. CareJobs.Now job board: the pay open jobs state, read nightly from each employer's own careers site, published October 24, 2026
  2. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: Therapists, All Other (SOC 29-1129), published May 15, 2026
  3. BLS OEWS May 2025: Therapists, All Other by state, published May 15, 2026
  4. BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035: Therapists, All Other, published August 27, 2026

Cite this page

CareJobs.Now. (2026). Child life specialist salary. Data as of October 24, 2026. https://carejobs.now/salaries/child-life-specialist

How the board counts