Rehabilitation Counselors
Counsel individuals to maximize the independence and employability of persons coping with personal, social, and vocational difficulties that result from birth defects, illness, disease, accidents, aging, or the stress of daily life. Coordinate activities for residents of care and treatment facilities. Assess client needs and design and implement rehabilitation programs that may include personal and vocational counseling, training, and job placement.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Rehabilitation Counselors. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $35,060 | $16.85 |
| 25th | $38,770 | $18.64 |
| 50th · Median | $46,850 | $22.52 |
| 75th | $59,260 | $28.49 |
| 90th | $77,170 | $37.10 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (21)
Typical tasks
- Develop rehabilitation plans that fit clients' aptitudes, education levels, physical abilities, and career goals.
- Confer with clients to discuss their options and goals so that rehabilitation programs and plans for accessing needed services can be developed.
- Prepare and maintain records and case files, including documentation, such as clients' personal and eligibility information, services provided, narratives of client contacts, or relevant correspondence.
- Locate barriers to client employment, such as inaccessible work sites, inflexible schedules, or transportation problems, and work with clients to develop strategies for overcoming these barriers.
- Analyze information from interviews, educational and medical records, consultation with other professionals, and diagnostic evaluations to assess clients' abilities, needs, and eligibility for services.
- Monitor and record clients' progress to ensure that goals and objectives are met.
Expand more tasks (11)
- Develop and maintain relationships with community referral sources, such as schools or community groups.
- Maintain close contact with clients during job training and placements to resolve problems and evaluate placement adequacy.
- Arrange for physical, mental, academic, vocational, and other evaluations to obtain information for assessing clients' needs and developing rehabilitation plans.
- Participate in job development and placement programs, contacting prospective employers, placing clients in jobs, and evaluating the success of placements.
- Manage budgets and direct case service allocations, authorizing expenditures and payments.
- Confer with physicians, psychologists, occupational therapists, and other professionals to develop and implement client rehabilitation programs.
- Supervise rehabilitation counselors and staff.
- Arrange for on-site job coaching or assistive devices, such as specially equipped wheelchairs, to help clients adapt to work or school environments.
- Collaborate with clients' families to implement rehabilitation plans, such as behavioral, residential, social, or employment goals.
- Collaborate with community agencies to establish facilities and programs for persons with disabilities.
- Develop diagnostic procedures to determine clients' needs.
Skills used in this work
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
Expand more skills (29)
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
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