Occupational Therapist Salary in Georgia: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

An occupational therapist in Georgia earns a median salary of $104,010 a year, or about $50.01 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most OTs in the state land between $75,290 at the 10th percentile and $128,610 at the 90th, so where you fall depends on your experience, your metro, and the setting you work in. That median sits a little above the national figure, which is the first thing worth knowing before you negotiate.

How Georgia compares to the national average

Georgia pays occupational therapists slightly better than the country as a whole. The national median for the role is $100,330, and Georgia’s median of $104,010 runs $3,680 ahead of that, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). That is a meaningful but not dramatic edge. For a profession with a national licensing standard and fairly portable skills, a state coming in above the median is a good sign for anyone deciding where to practice.

One detail worth flagging is the gap between Georgia’s median ($104,010) and its mean, or average, of $101,460. The mean sits below the median here, which tells you the pay distribution is not heavily skewed by a handful of very high earners. In plain terms, the typical OT and the average OT in Georgia earn close to the same money, so the median is a reliable anchor for your own expectations.

The full statewide spread runs from $75,290 at the 10th percentile to $128,610 at the 90th. The 25th percentile sits at $82,320 and the 75th at $118,560. That is a roughly $53,000 swing from the bottom tenth to the top tenth, and almost all of that movement comes down to experience, metro, and care setting. The sections below break each of those out.

Occupational therapist salary in Georgia by experience

The clearest driver of OT pay in Georgia is years on the job. New graduates typically start near the bottom of the percentile range while clinicians with a decade or more of caseload experience, specialty certifications, or a lead role push toward the top. Here is how the BLS percentile data maps onto career stage.

A new OT in Georgia generally walks in around $75,290 to $82,320, the 10th to 25th percentile band. That entry range still clears most starting salaries for master’s-level healthcare roles in the state, which reflects the strong demand for licensed therapists. The jump from the 25th percentile ($82,320) to the median ($104,010) is the steepest climb in a typical career, worth about $21,690, and it usually happens across the first five to eight years as you build caseload speed, documentation efficiency, and a specialty.

From the median to the 75th percentile is another $14,550, and from there to the 90th is $10,050 more. The top of the curve, $128,610, tends to belong to OTs who have stacked a specialty certification on top of experience, moved into home health or skilled nursing where reimbursement runs higher, or stepped into a lead or rehab-director role. The takeaway is that the early years reward simply getting faster and more confident, while the later jumps reward deliberate specialization and setting choice.

It helps to translate those annual numbers into hourly terms, because a lot of OT work in Georgia is paid by the hour or PRN. The median of $104,010 works out to $50.01 an hour. The entry 10th percentile of $75,290 is about $36.20, the 25th percentile around $39.58, the experienced 75th near $57.00, and the senior 90th roughly $61.83. When a home-health agency or staffing firm quotes you a per-visit or hourly rate, those benchmarks tell you instantly whether the offer is entry-tier or senior-tier money.

One more thing the percentile curve hides is how quickly the early raises arrive versus how slowly the top-end ones do. Going from the 10th to the 25th percentile is a $7,030 bump, and from the 25th to the median is a $21,690 jump. Those are the moves a competent OT makes almost automatically in the first several years just by becoming efficient and reliable. After the median, the gains get harder. The $14,550 from median to 75th and the $10,050 from 75th to 90th usually require a deliberate choice, whether that is a certification, a setting change, or a title change. Knowing that the curve flattens at the top is useful, because it means coasting will stall your pay around the median, while a single targeted move can reopen real upside.

Occupational therapist salary in Georgia by metro

Where you work inside Georgia moves the number more than people expect. The state median is $104,010, but the metro medians range from the mid-$90,000s up past $106,000. Atlanta both pays the most and employs by far the most OTs, while the smaller metros cluster a notch below. This metro-level detail is the part of the picture a quick search rarely gives you.

Atlanta is the center of gravity. At $106,160, its median runs $2,150 above the statewide figure, and with 2,120 OTs employed it holds well over half of the state’s 3,650 occupational therapist jobs, per BLS (2025). If you want the deepest pool of hospital systems, pediatric clinics, outpatient practices, and school contracts, the metro is where they are concentrated.

Macon stands out among the smaller markets at $100,680, only a few thousand below Atlanta despite a fraction of the headcount. With just 90 OTs employed there, it is the smallest market in this table by headcount yet nearly the highest by pay, which usually signals tight supply and employers that have to pay up to staff their caseloads. Augusta follows at $99,880, helped by its large medical-college and hospital footprint, and at 260 OTs it is the second-largest employment base in the state after Atlanta.

Savannah ($95,830) and Columbus ($94,580) sit at the bottom of this group, roughly $11,580 below Atlanta’s median at the widest gap. Savannah carries 130 OT jobs and Columbus 160, so both are stable mid-sized markets rather than thin ones. Those lower numbers are not the whole story though, because housing in Savannah and Columbus generally costs less than in Atlanta, so a smaller gross can still leave you with comparable spending power once rent is paid. A useful way to read this table is to pair the median with the headcount. Atlanta gives you the most pay and the most jobs, which is rare, so if you have no geographic ties, it is the obvious default. The smaller metros trade some headline salary for less competition and, in most cases, cheaper living, which can be the better deal for an OT who values a shorter commute or a lower cost base over a bigger gross.

It is also worth noting how concentrated the profession is. Atlanta’s 2,120 OTs plus Augusta’s 260, Columbus’s 160, Savannah’s 130, and Macon’s 90 account for the large majority of Georgia’s 3,650 statewide jobs, with the remainder spread across rural areas and smaller towns not large enough to report a separate metro median. If you are open to a rural or small-town placement, those areas can offer sign-on incentives and loan-repayment programs that the metro medians do not capture, since the BLS figures reflect base wages rather than recruitment perks.

Take-home pay after tax in Georgia

Gross salary is not what hits your account. Georgia levies a state income tax, and federal tax plus FICA take their cut before you see a dollar. The table below runs four points on the curve, the entry 10th percentile, the median, the experienced 75th, and the senior 90th, showing what each owes and what is left, for the 2026 tax year. Figures assume a single filer with standard deductions.

At the median, a Georgia OT earning $104,010 keeps $76,598 after federal, FICA, and state tax, which works out to $6,383 a month and an effective tax rate of 26.4%. The entry-level OT at $75,290 keeps $57,941, or $4,828 a month, at a 23.0% effective rate. The experienced 75th-percentile OT at $118,560 keeps $86,045, about $7,170 a month, at a 27.4% rate. At the senior end, $128,610 nets $92,373, or $7,698 a month, with the effective rate climbing to 28.2% as more income falls into higher brackets.

Watch how the effective rate creeps up as you move along the curve, from 23.0% at entry to 28.2% at the senior level. That 5.2-point climb is the federal progressive bracket structure doing its work, and it means each raise is worth a little less in your pocket than the gross suggests. The senior OT earns $53,320 more gross than the entry OT ($128,610 versus $75,290) but keeps only $34,432 more in net ($92,373 versus $57,941). About $18,888 of that raise goes to taxes. None of this is a reason to turn down a raise, but it does explain why the take-home gap between career stages is narrower than the salary gap, and why a pre-tax retirement contribution can be a smart way to claw some of that back at the higher percentiles.

On the state portion specifically, Georgia’s income tax climbs in step with earnings here, from $3,411 at the entry level to $4,959 at the median, $5,744 at the 75th, and $6,285 at the 90th. That state line is exactly the cost that a no-tax state erases, which sets up the comparison below.

Here is the cross-state comparison that matters most. Take that same median OT salary and drop it in Texas, a state with no income tax, and the net take-home is $81,557 instead of Georgia’s $76,598. That is a gap of $4,959 a year, money that Georgia’s state income tax claims and Texas does not. Over a decade, all else equal, that difference adds up to roughly the price of a new car. It is the single clearest reason an OT weighing Georgia against a no-tax state should look at net pay, not the headline gross.

That said, the number that actually decides your standard of living is net pay minus local housing. A larger paycheck in a metro with brutal rent can leave you worse off than a smaller one in a cheaper market. Atlanta’s higher median means little if your rent eats the difference, and a Savannah or Macon salary can stretch further than its gross suggests. Run your own figure, your filing status, and your county through the Georgia paycheck calculator before you compare offers, and if you want to model deductions and credits in detail, TurboTax will walk you through them at filing time.

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How to earn more as an OT in Georgia

The percentile spread shows there is real room to move up. The difference between the median ($104,010) and the 90th percentile ($128,610) is $24,600 a year, and most of it is reachable through deliberate moves rather than just waiting. Here is where the bargaining power actually is in Georgia.

• Choose the higher-paying setting. Home health and skilled nursing facilities generally pay above outpatient clinics and schools because reimbursement runs higher and caseloads are heavier. Shifting setting is often the fastest single raise available.
• Earn a specialty certification. Board certifications through AOTA in areas like gerontology, pediatrics, or physical rehabilitation, or credentials such as a Certified Hand Therapist (CHT), separate you from the general pool and push you toward the 75th and 90th percentile bands. You can build the prerequisite coursework and continuing education through providers like Coursera.
• Move toward Atlanta or its competitive submarkets. The Atlanta metro median of $106,160 is the highest in the state, and the depth of employers there gives you more bargaining power to negotiate and more room to switch jobs for a raise.
• Step into a lead, supervisory, or rehab-director role. Management and program-lead positions carry the senior-tier salaries near $128,610 and add responsibilities beyond direct patient care.
• Pick up PRN or contract hours. Many Georgia OTs add per-diem shifts on top of a salaried role, since the $50.01 median hourly rate makes extra hours genuinely worthwhile.
• Negotiate against the metro median, not the state one. If you work in Atlanta, anchor your ask to $106,160, not $104,010. Knowing your local number is half the negotiation.

Job outlook for occupational therapists in Georgia

Georgia employs 3,650 occupational therapists, with the bulk of those jobs, 2,120, concentrated in the Atlanta metro, per BLS (2025). Occupational therapy nationally is a growing field, driven by an aging population that needs rehabilitation, home-health support, and help recovering function after injury or illness. Georgia’s mix of large hospital systems, a sizable school-based therapy market, and expanding suburban outpatient clinics gives newly licensed OTs several distinct paths into the profession.

The smaller metros, Augusta, Columbus, Savannah, and Macon, each support a stable base of jobs and tend to compete less for talent, which can mean faster hiring even if the median runs lower than Atlanta’s. If you want to see what employers across the state are paying right now and which settings are hiring, browse current Georgia OT openings on ZipRecruiter.

Related and higher-paying roles in Georgia

If you are weighing occupational therapy against adjacent healthcare careers in Georgia, here is how the pay stacks up against this role’s state median of $104,010, using BLS (2025) figures for each.

A physical therapist in Georgia earns a median of $102,700, which is $1,310 less than an occupational therapist in the state. The two roles sit nearly on top of each other on pay, so the choice between them comes down to the work itself rather than the paycheck. A registered nurse in Georgia has a median of $93,550, which is $10,460 less than an occupational therapist here. OTs out-earn RNs at the median in Georgia by a clear margin, though nursing offers far more positions and a wider range of specializations and shift premiums.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 (occupation 29-1122, Georgia and metro data); ThePayGuide tax modeling for the 2026 tax year. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.