Psychiatric Social Worker I

Across all employers in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA area, the median wage for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers — about 9,380 people — is $78,410. Health Services - Community Programs pays a median base salary of $97,865 for this role, 25% above that figure — about the 68th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 15 of 16 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at Health Services - Community Programs is $138,844, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

Psychiatric Social Worker I is held in 12 Los Angeles County departments. In Health Services - Community Programs, the median of $118,373 ranks #6 of 12.

This role is reported in 5 jurisdictions. In Los Angeles County, the median of $155,217 ranks #1 of 5. See Psychiatric Social Worker across all of Los Angeles County →