All About The Psychologist Salary

If you’re wondering what the average psychologist salary in 2012, it can vary. The US Department of Labor provides a great resource on the variety of salaries in the psychology field called the Occupational Outlook Handbook. This handbook was published in 2008, and it gives a good idea of the median salary in the marketplace today.

The handbook points out that the median salary for all fields of psychology is $64,000. On the low end, the earnings were around $38,000 and on the upper end about $106,000. It all comes down to your level of experience and the field of psychology you choose.

Clinical psychologists, for example, start out around $62,000. Cognitive psychologists generally earn around $55K, and forensic psychologists earn about $5K more General health psychologists start at around $40,000 dollars for people just starting out, while their more experienced colleagues can earn up to $85,000 dollars.

Human resource management, employee productivity and training are just a few of the areas that an Industrial/Organization psychologist deals with earning up to $100K+ per year. However, the starting salaries are low for an Industrial/Organizational psychologist according to the latest from the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. The starting salaries are as follows: Master’s degree – $39K; PhD – $55K; Median – $80K; working in the private sector – $100K.

Although opportunities exist all over the field, most people with bachelor’s degrees tend to work in the human resources arena. In order to increase a psychologist salary, it requires more education and the attainment of at least a master’s degree. Attaining the Ph.D. level is an assurance that the person can work in almost any psychological area.

The Industrial/Organizational psychologist commands the highest level of pay, it does require a certain type of mindset. Research and numbers crunching is the main thing that Industrial/Organizational psychologists tend to deal with. Statistics and research are what makes up this job, so if you’re not this type of person it might not be for you.

Clinical psychologists deal a lot more with people one on one, doing assessments and diagnosis. They also provide a wide variety of treatments for mental issues. It also includes preventative methods, and the ability to work in a medical setting. Although a clinical psychologist is not a medical doctor, they represent one of the largest subcategory of psychologists in a medical setting The psychology subcategory covers a wide range of groups: learning disabled, drug and alcohol abuse, childhood, adult and geriatric mental health issues.

Clinical psychologists learn a number of techniques and approaches to work with mental health issues. They earn anywhere from $40,000 as entry level up to $50,000 or more.

At the end of the day, whatever career you’re considering, it isn’t the psychologist salary that counts as much as pursuing a career that you love. If you like dealing one-on-one with people, studying to be and Industrial and Organizational psychologist might not be your best course of action. The flip side to that coin is that if you love to do research and find statistics to be very interesting, then it might be right up your alley.