---
title: "Occupational Therapy Assistant"
description: "Assist occupational therapists in providing occupational therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in development of…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapy-assistant"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Occupational Therapy Assistant

**Category:** Healthcare Support · **SOC code:** 31-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 31-2011.00

Assist occupational therapists in providing occupational therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, direct activity programs, and document the progress of treatments. Generally requires formal training.

Also advertised as: Acute Care Occupational Therapy Assistant (Acute Care OT Assistant); Certified Occupational Assistant; Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA); Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA); Licensed Occupational Therapist Assistant (LOTA); Licensed Occupational Therapy Assistant (LOTA); Occupational Therapist Assistant (OTA); Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $72,300 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $34.76/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $51,490 to $89,780, with the middle half between $61,710 and $79,160
- **Total US employment:** 51,290
- **Typical entry education:** Associate's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +21.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 8,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 51,290 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $51,490 |
| 25th | $61,710 |
| 50th (median) | $72,300 |
| 75th | $79,160 |
| 90th | $89,780 |
| Mean (average) | $70,710 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MD | $82,010 | $78,135 | 710 |
| CA | $81,770 | $73,853 | 3,840 |
| TX | $81,500 | $83,971 | 5,610 |
| NV | $79,510 | $79,527 | 220 |
| AR | $78,940 | $90,801 | 730 |
| DE | $78,640 | $78,791 | 220 |
| WA | $77,590 | $72,505 | 720 |
| NM | $77,020 | $83,525 | 300 |
| OR | $76,850 | $74,351 | 250 |
| GA | $75,920 | $78,843 | 1,060 |
| CO | $75,340 | $73,109 | 710 |
| MA | $75,040 | $70,955 | 1,410 |
| NJ | $74,960 | $68,894 | 1,080 |
| VA | $74,960 | $74,141 | 1,130 |
| SC | $73,740 | $78,657 | 830 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapy-assistant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/occupational-therapy-assistant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 52,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 63,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 11,200 jobs, or +21.5%. Much faster than average: 21.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 8,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Associate's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 91.7% |
| Some College Courses | 5.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 2.7% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 0.5% |

## What the work involves

- Maintain and promote a positive attitude toward clients and their treatment programs.
- Report to supervisors, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior.
- Monitor patients' performance in therapy activities, providing encouragement.
- Observe and record patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior and maintain this information in client records.
- Select therapy activities to fit patients' needs and capabilities.
- Attend continuing education classes.
- Aid patients in dressing and grooming themselves.
- Communicate and collaborate with other healthcare professionals involved with the care of a patient.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Therapy and Counseling — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 6.10 |
| C — Conventional | 4.21 |
| R — Realistic | 3.53 |
| I — Investigative | 3.48 |
| A — Artistic | 2.06 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.14 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 76.5 |
| ESFJ | 68.3 |
| ISFP | 63.1 |
| INFJ | 57.7 |
| ESFP | 56.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Occupational Therapy Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapy-aide) — median $39,160
- [Physical Therapist Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-assistant) — median $68,380
- [Physical Therapist Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-aide) — median $35,240
- [Psychiatric Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatric-technician) — median $45,130
- [Respiratory Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/respiratory-therapist) — median $82,280
- [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Radiation Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiation-therapist) — median $105,310
- [Licensed Practical Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse) — median $64,400
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Massage Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/massage-therapist) — median $58,450

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/occupational-therapy-assistant