A Snapshot of Counselor Debt Load, Wages, and Benefits

The Virginia Department of Health Professions and the Virginia Healthcare Workforce Data Center recently published the results of a survey of over 6,000 LPCs in Virginia. The full report can be found here. As our team prepare to launch its own survey of students, the data from Virginia provide a bit of a sneak peek at as to what we might see as we explore questions of class and classism in our training programs. Here are some of the key findings:

• 67% of LPCs under the age of 40 have student debt (page 8)

• The median debt load for licensed professional counselors in Virginia with student debt is $80,000 - 90,000. (page 8) In 2015, when the last report was issued, the median debt was $40,000-50,000. (page 2)

• 23% of all LPCs in Virginia with student debt have a debt burden of over $90,000 (page 8)

• 31% of LPCs under the age of 40 in Virginia have a student debt burden of over $90,000 (page 8)

• 32% of all LPCs in the state make between $50,000-$70,000. This salary range was the one most commonly reported by respondents. (page 11)

We should note here that Virginia now has a resident license for counselors who have graduated but are under supervision until they acquire enough experience to practice independently. It is not clear if the report captures data from residents, who would have graduated only recently and who would have just started to repay any student debt they acquired.

Some other statistics that caught our attention:

• 45% of LPCs receiving a salary from an employer reported receiving health insurance as a benefit. (page 11) It is not clear how many LPCs in the sample had no health insurance.

• 42% of LPCs receiving a salary from an employer reported having a retirement plan as a benefit. (page 11)

• 49% of LPCs receiving salary from an employer reported getting paid vacation as a benefit. (page 11)

Adding to the data on LPCs in Virginia is a recent report from the Virginia Healthcare Foundation assessing Virginia's entire behavioral health workforce. One of the chief findings of that report (found here) is that the number of graduates from training programs who go on to become licensed is not large enough to replace expected retirements from the behavioral health workforce. This poses a significant problem for a state that already has too few behavioral health providers to meet the demand for services. The report also noted a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the behavioral health workforce.

Combined, these two reports paint a picture of a profession that is expensive to enter with little economic incentive to attract talent relative to other fields. At the same time, demand for mental health services is soaring. So how can we make training more affordable and improve salaries and benefits to the make entering and staying in the counseling field attractive?