There were approximately 182,400 healthcare social workers employed in the U.S. as of May 2022 according to reports published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  Healthcare social workers are employed in a variety of healthcare settings, including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient care centers, and home healthcare agencies. Healthcare social work professionals generally earn slightly higher average salaries than workers in most other occupations.  As of May 2022, the BLS estimated that the national mean wage for healthcare social workers was $62,760 per year.  The profession's national median wage, which is the midpoint on the wage scale between the upper and lower half of wage earners, was $60,280 per year. While healthcare social workers earn slightly better salaries in comparison to most workers, there is considerable variation from region to region in how much healthcare social workers earn.  This variation is evident in May 2022 BLS data, which reveals the following about healthcare social worker average pay in the top 25 U.S. metro markets, regions that collectively held about 44% of all healthcare social worker jobs in the U.S.:

Healthcare Social Worker Average Pay in the Top 25 U.S. Metro Markets

	Metropolitan Area		Median Annual Wage	Mean Annual Wage
1	New York-Newark-Jersey City		$60,180	$65,320
2	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim		$77,940	$84,110
3	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin		$62,260	$62,640
4	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington		$65,270	$65,390
5	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land		$61,620	$62,910
6	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria		n/a	n/a
7	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington		$63,320	$65,540
8	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach		$58,970	$58,900
9	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta		$59,280	$60,800
10	Boston-Cambridge-Newton		$61,280	$66,590
11	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler		$63,670	$65,250
12	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley		$103,260	$104,200
13	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario		$76,440	$82,200
14	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn		$57,590	$58,480
15	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue		$78,680	$76,750
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington		$63,970	$65,320
17	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad		$77,770	$79,980
18	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater		$49,940	$54,040
19	Denver-Aurora-Lakewood		$61,160	$61,450
20	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson		$59,650	$59,230
21	St. Louis, MO-IL		$49,080	$53,570
22	Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford		$51,070	$53,520
23	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia		$62,350	$64,040
24	San Antonio-New Braunfels		$60,530	$61,180
25	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro		$77,250	$76,220
	National		$60,280	$62,760

Report Period:  May 2022
Top 25 U.S. Metro Areas from the 2020 Census
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Occupational Statistics
Data extracted on July 1, 2023