What Psychologists Actually Earn

In the US, a psychologist can expect to bring home somewhere between $50,000 and $80,000, and where you land in that range depends heavily on your employer and the part of the country you settle in.

The hiring picture isn't uniform across specialties. Industrial-organizational consultants were projected to see strong growth, around 26 percent, while the broader pool of psychological consultants was looking at closer to 14 percent. Getting into a graduate psychology program is another hurdle entirely, and competition for those spots is fierce. If you hold a doctorate in an applied subfield such as health psychology, your job prospects tend to be the strongest. Advanced degrees open good doors in the industrial-organizational world too. A bachelor's degree on its own, though, leaves you with far fewer options.

Some of the firmest numbers come from a survey the research office of the American Psychological Association ran in 2001. They collected responses from 1,104 doctoral-level practitioners, all licensed, all listing clinical psychology as their primary field, and all directly involved in delivering health and mental well-being services to clients.

One of the more useful parts of that survey was simply where these clinicians were working. Roughly 65 percent were in private practice, split between 46 percent in solo practices and 19 percent in group settings. Hospitals accounted for about 14 percent. Another slice worked in elementary and secondary schools (around 3 percent), and 2 percent or fewer were scattered across university counseling centers, the criminal justice system, rehabilitation facilities, and other human service agencies.

Pay naturally tracked experience. According to figures reported on Payscale.com, the median annual income for licensed doctoral-level clinical psychologists came to $63,935 in 2008. That number shifts as you break it down by years in the field, and it moves again depending on the employer. A hospital, a private group, a school district: each pays on its own scale, and the gap between them is real.

The short version is that the degree you earn and the setting you choose end up mattering as much as the title on your business card.