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Therapy & rehab

Recreational therapist salary

Open recreational therapist jobs post a median of $32.50 an hour, with the middle half paying $27–$35.50: about $67,600 a year full time. Measured from 33 jobs at 24 employers that state their pay, read from each employer's own job board.

$32.50
Median posted /hr
$27–$36
Middle half /hr
$67,600
A year, full time
estimate, 2,080 hours
$29.79
BLS median /hr
May 2025

The jobs themselves: Recreational therapist jobs

What recreational therapists 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 33 open jobs. The chart spans the 2nd to the 98th percentile; the lowest rate posted is $15.60, the highest $54.24.

Posted on open jobs

$27–$35.50/hr

Middle half of 29 employer rates (each employer's advertised range once), median $32.50. 24% of the 136 open recreational therapist jobs state an hourly rate.

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Recreational therapist pay by employer

What each employer posts for recreational therapists, 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
Select Medical$27$27–$325
Valleywise Health System$19.25$15.60–$31.483
CommonSpirit Health$36$25.42–$48.072
Opportunities for Positive Growth$35.50$33–$382
Ascension$33.25$26.38–$40.502
AW Holdings$49$44–$541
Benchmark Human Services-IN$49$44–$541
Catholic Health (Long Island)$45.25$45.201
Seattle Children's$45.25$36.16–$54.241
Sharp HealthCare$44.50$38.80–$50.071
Legacy Health$40$32.96–$47.121
Northwell Health$35.25$32.64–$37.821
Fundamental Healthcare$35$351
Kaweah Health$35$27.90–$41.851
Advocate Health$33.25$26.55–$39.851
RWJBarnabas Health$33.25$33.261
OSF HealthCare$29.75$27.26–$32.061
Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services$28.50$22.73–$34.091
VCU Health$27.25$21.46–$33.261
University of Rochester Medical Center$27$22.91–$30.931
Hackensack Meridian Health$25.75$25.771
Rochester Regional Health$24.50$20–$291
Gundersen Health System$24.25$24.361
LifePoint Health$24$18.50–$29.501

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.

Recreational therapist 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.

8 open jobs from 7 employers state a yearly salary: a median of $60,000, the middle half $55,700 to $62,000, from $42,619 to $94,869 posted.

Best-paid open recreational therapist jobs

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

Every open job: Recreational therapist 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
Recreational Therapists (29-1125)$19.71 (source: BLS OEWS, Recreational Therapists, opens in a new tab)$24.16 (source: BLS OEWS, Recreational Therapists, opens in a new tab)$29.79 (source: BLS OEWS, Recreational Therapists, opens in a new tab)$38.43 (source: BLS OEWS, Recreational Therapists, opens in a new tab)$48.28 (source: BLS OEWS, Recreational Therapists, opens in a new tab)14,930 (source: BLS OEWS, Recreational Therapists, opens in a new tab)

The posted median ($32.50) is $2.71 above the BLS median ($29.79 (source: BLS OEWS May 2025, Recreational Therapists, 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.

Recreational therapist salary: common questions

How much does a recreational therapist make an hour?

Open recreational therapist jobs on CareJobs.Now that state an hourly rate post a median of $32.50, with the middle half between $27–$35.50 (33 jobs from 24 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 $29.79/hr ($61,960 a year) for recreational therapists in May 2025.

How much does a recreational therapist make a year?

At the posted median of $32.50 an hour, full time (2,080 hours a year) comes to about $67,600, and the middle half to $56,200 to $73,800. That is arithmetic on the hourly rate, not a salary any job states. 8 open jobs state a yearly salary instead, a median of $60,000.

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: 33 of 136 open recreational therapist jobs (24%) 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: Therapy & rehab

Recreational therapist 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: Recreational Therapists (SOC 29-1125), published May 15, 2026
  3. BLS OEWS May 2025: Recreational Therapists by state, published May 15, 2026
  4. BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035: Recreational Therapists (Occupational Outlook Handbook), published August 27, 2026

Cite this page

CareJobs.Now. (2026). Recreational therapist salary. Data as of October 24, 2026. https://carejobs.now/salaries/recreational-therapist

How the board counts