Hello all!
I'm not in OT school yet, but I've been shadowing a therapist who sees mostly early intervention patients at their homes. I really like this setting and working with small children to reach their developmental milestones and have gotten really curious about salary.
Typically, pediatric settings pay the least, but I've done some googling and it seems that early intervention and other areas of home health pay more? I was wondering if anyone could clarify what a salary range could be for both early intervention and home health in general in California?
Can't weigh in on home health, but I can weight in on EI. Salary range is difficult, but I would say 60 to 65 thousand a year for new grads in the current market in the Southern CA area. If you're lucky (speak another language, really good at negotiating, have a ton of peds experience), you may be able to get into the 65 to 70 zone, but I think 60 to 65 is a good bet.
But. Let me explain why salary is a hard number to give you. Most EI facilities pay by each billable hour. So, if you see 5 kids that day, you get paid for those 5 hours of service time. Documentation time is not additional. Drive time may or may not be reimbursed by your facility (at a much lower rate). If all your kids cancel that day, you will not be paid for any work time. During the holiday season when parents tend to cancel, you may not make enough money to pay your rent during that week.
However, because these facilities pay for each billable hour, the figure they offer for each billable hour will appear high. For example, a job posting may advertise 45 dollars an hour. However, they are usually referring to 45 dollars for each billable hour; you do not get paid 45 dollars for an hour when you don't see a client or when you are driving. If you are driving home to home to home and only want to work an 8 hour day, you will fit in 5-6 clients a day. I'm gonna be generous and say you see 6 clients a day and no one ever cancels. 45 x 6: 270 a day. 270 x 5: 1350 a week. 1350 x 4: 5400 during a 4 week month. Multiply that by 12 months, you will be getting a little under 65,000 a year. That's assuming no one ever cancels. Children get sick a lot. Sick children get their therapists sick. You will have days when tons of parents cancel. And like I said earlier, you aren't paid additional for documentation time; it's all included in that 45 dollars.
