25 Best States For Social Workers

If you’re currently working in the field or looking to study, you’ll want to keep this list of the best states for social workers in your back pocket.

Social workers help other people cope with and solve problems in their lives. There is a group of social workers called the clinical social group where those individuals are able to give diagnoses and treat mental, behavioral, and emotional issues. Social workers are employed in a variety of places, like mental health clinics, schools, child welfare, hospitals, and private practices. If you’re a social worker or have a degree in social work there are a variety of fields you can get into, as evidenced by the number of places one can work.

In order to become a social worker, you need a degree in social work, which sounds easy enough. If you want to become a clinical social worker, which opens up more job opportunity, you’ll need a postgraduate degree and two years of experience after that point. To work in the field you need to have a license in the state you’re practicing, too, and we’ll help you out in picking the best state for that in a moment.

Social workers are needed everywhere since people are always going through issues that require them to seek help. Demand is generally always high, which is evidenced on our list of the 11 Cities with the Highest Demand for Social Workers. Demand isn’t the only factor when it comes to choosing a place to live, though. You’re probably also interested in salary. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015 the average annual salary was $45,900, which comes to about $22.07 an hour.

This career path isn’t easy, as you might end up having to work weekends and holidays. You probably want your time off to be paid, too, especially if you work a ton of overtime. Because of this, we took into consideration the best states to move, live, work, and earn a good amount of money in, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics as the jumping off point. We considered social workers in all fields, like child, family, school, healthcare, and more. The two main criteria we considered were the cost of living index and the average annual salary. We took the average of those to get the best idea of the best states for social workers. The reason we took the average is because it doesn’t matter if a state’s salary is high if it costs too much to live there. We wanted to make sure the combinations of high salary and low cost of living index made it to the top of the list.

Pack your bags and get your notebooks ready for your new job!

 

25. Florida

Cost of living index: 99

Average annual wage: $48,705

Average hourly wage: $23.41

Number of employees: 12,600

 

24. Kansas

Cost of living index: 90.4

Average annual wage: $44,530

Average hourly wage: $21.40

Number of employees: 5,100

 

23. Ohio

Cost of living index: 93

Average annual wage: $45,822

Average hourly wage: $22.03

Number of employees: 26,970

 

 

22. Nebraska

Cost of living index: 91.3

Average annual wage: $45,032

Average hourly wage: $21.65

Number of employees: 4,530

 

 

21. Tennessee

Cost of living index: 89.8

Average annual wage: $44,605

Average hourly wage: $21.44

Number of employees: 10,550

 

20. Delaware

Cost of living index: 102.6

Average annual wage: $51,017

Average hourly wage: $24.52

Number of employees: 2,310

 

19. North Carolina

Cost of living index: 94.2

Average annual wage: $47,750

Average hourly wage: $22.95

Number of employees: 17,820

 

18. Louisiana

Cost of living index: 94.4

Average annual wage: $47,902

Average hourly wage: $23.03

Number of employees: 4,430

 

17. North Dakota

Cost of living index: 98.9

Average annual wage: $50,210

Average hourly wage: $24.13

Number of employees: 1,510

 

16. Alabama

Cost of living index: 91.2

Average annual wage: $46,530

Average hourly wage: $22.37

Number of employees: 7,670

 

15. Iowa

Cost of living index: 91.7

Average annual wage: $47,285

Average hourly wage: $22.73

Number of employees: 6,880

 

14. Washington

Cost of living index: 107.1

Average annual wage: $55,760

Average hourly wage: $26.80

Number of employees: 11,970

 

13. Wisconsin

Cost of living index: 96.9

Average annual wage: $50,860

Average hourly wage: $24.45

Number of employees: 8,620

 

 

12. Indiana

Cost of living index: 87.9

Average annual wage: $46,557

Average hourly wage: $22.38

Number of employees: 11,730

We’re halfway through our list of best states for social workers, and now, let’s see the other half.

 

11. Virginia

Cost of living index: 100.2

Average annual wage: $53,172

Average hourly wage: $25.56

Number of employees: 15,170

 

10. New Jersey

Cost of living index: 121

Average annual wage: $64,722

Average hourly wage: $31.11

Number of employees: 12,200

 

9. Georgia

Cost of living index: 91.4

Average annual wage: $48,922

Average hourly wage: $23.52

Number of employees: 13,990

 

8. Minnesota

Cost of living index: 101.1

Average annual wage: $54,217

Average hourly wage: $26.06

Number of employees: 12,410

 

 

7. Utah

Cost of living index: 92.8

Average annual wage: $49,857

Average hourly wage: $23.96

Number of employees: 4,600

 

6. Nevada

Cost of living index: 104.5

Average annual wage: $57,810

Average hourly wage: $27.79

Number of employees: 4,530

 

5. Wyoming

Cost of living index: 91.7

Average annual wage: $51,907

Average hourly wage: $24.95

Number of employees: 1,160

 

4. Idaho

Cost of living index: 89.6

Average annual wage: $50,982

Average hourly wage: $24.51

Number of employees: 2,570

 

3. Texas

Cost of living index: 90.7

Average annual wage: $52,160

Average hourly wage: $25.07

Number of employees: 29,930

 

2. Michigan

Cost of living index: 88.2

Average annual wage: $51,357

Average hourly wage: $24.69

Number of employees: 24,870

 

1. Illinois

Cost of living index: 95.5

Average annual wage: $57,117

Average hourly wage: $27.46

Number of employees: 24,660

We hope we managed to show you the 25 best states for social workers so you can decide where you want to move if you want to increase your quality of life and improve your career!