The pay is nowhere near what the market is currently paying, especially in competitive markets. It’s not sustainable. However, I saw a new posting for a California therapist starting at $90k - but all of the seasoned therapists are currently at a salary base pay of $60-70,000. Many therapists are forced to have additional jobs to make ends meet, which is completely unfair in comparison to what leadership and psychiatrists are getting paid. I have a Masters degree and someone with a Bachelors degree is getting paid six figures.
They say that the therapists are just as “significant” as the psychiatric and administrative staff, but their actions demonstrate otherwise. The incentive compensation is a complete setup - you can’t take any PTO or sick time in addition to ensuring you don’t have any cancellations in your schedule. Even then you’d only see about $1,000 and it’s inconsistent. It can feel quite discouraging to say the least. You’re expected to manage a pretty heavy caseload and now patients are able to self schedule themselves on to your schedule - so autonomy is slowly becoming nonexistent.