The Datum Report

Occupation 2222 · Professional occupations

Occupational therapists

Half of full-time occupational therapists in the UK earn more than £44,040 a year, and half earn less.

Occupational therapists work with people who have a physical or learning disability or mental illness, actively engaging them in purposeful activities in order to maximise self-confidence, independent functioning and well-being.

How people enter it

Entrants usually possess A levels/H grades, an HND/HNC, a BTEC/SQA award or equivalent qualifications followed by training on an approved degree scheme necessary for state registration as an occupational therapist. There is a minimum age limit of 18 years to enter training.

What the work involves

• considers the physical, psychological and social needs of a patient that may result from illness, injury, congenital condition or lifestyle problems
• devises, designs, initiates and monitors carefully selected and graded treatments and activities as part of the assessment and intervention process
• liaises with a wide variety of other professionals in planning and reviewing ongoing treatments
• trains students and supervises the work of occupational therapy assistants
• makes home visits to clients, families and carers to organise support and rehabilitation and assist them to deal and cope with disability
• counsels clients in ways to promote a healthy lifestyle, prevention of illness and/or preparation for coping with increasing stages of illness
• maintains patient records, manages caseloads

Also called

Community occupational therapist · Occupational therapist · Paediatric occupational therapist

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for occupational therapists, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 11 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Clinical psychologists · Other psychologists · Physiotherapists · Psychotherapists and cognitive behaviour therapists · Speech and language therapists · Therapy professionals n.e.c.