What genetic counselors earn, and what BLS says they actually do
A genetic counselor earned a median of $100,040 a year in May 2025, or $48.09 an hour, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which profiles this occupation on its own dedicated page under SOC code 29-9092. The bottom 10% of earners made less than $78,270 a year, while the top 10% made more than $138,760, a spread of roughly $60,490. BLS counted 4,200 genetic counselors nationwide in 2025, a small occupation in headcount terms compared with most of the roles this site tracks.
BLS describes the job itself as assessing a client's risk for inherited conditions, such as birth defects, then reviewing genetic test results with individuals and families and helping them work through decisions based on those results; genetic counselors also pass that information along to other healthcare providers involved in a client's care. Most work full time, primarily in hospitals, physicians' offices, outpatient care centers, university medical centers, and diagnostic laboratories.
Two jobs share the word "counselor" on this site, but not much else
BLS separately tracks school and career counselors and advisors under a different SOC code, with a May 2025 median of $64,330, or $30.93 an hour, $35,710 below what genetic counselors earn. The $64,330 comparison includes career counselors and advisors as well as school counselors. School counseling usually calls for graduate education and a state credential; career or academic advisor employers may prefer a bachelor degree with experience, and only some states require career-counselor licensure. The combined wage estimate cannot isolate the pay of school counselors or the effect of education.
What differs is the degree itself and who issues the credential. BLS says school counselors typically need a master's degree in school counseling or a related field, plus a state credential that may be called a certification, a license, or an endorsement, with the specific exam varying by state (many use a Praxis test, though Texas uses its own). Genetic counselors instead need a master's degree specifically in genetic counseling from a program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling (ACGC), and licensure in most states typically requires passing a national board exam rather than a state-specific one, discussed further below. The two occupations sit in entirely separate parts of BLS's classification system despite the shared job title word, which is a reminder that "counselor" alone does not tell a reader much about degree requirements or pay on this site.
Industry pay spans about $49,000, and physician offices pay the least of the five settings
BLS breaks out May 2025 wages across five industry categories for genetic counselors. Outpatient care centers paid the highest median, at $143,620, followed by medical and diagnostic laboratories at $108,640, private colleges, universities, and professional schools at $106,710, and hospitals (state, local, and private) at $102,140. Offices of physicians paid the least of the five, at $94,380, a gap of $49,240 between the highest- and lowest-paying settings.
BLS reports the industry differences without attributing them to caseload complexity, referral volume or compensation arrangements. The medians alone do not establish those explanations.
A master's-only field that already out-earns one occupation requiring a doctorate
Per BLS, genetic counselors typically need a master's degree in genetic counseling, and nearly all states require them to be licensed, with licensure usually requiring board certification. BLS does not name the certifying body on its own page; it directs readers to their state's medical board for licensing specifics and separately points to CareerOneStop for certification information. Independently of BLS, that certification is the Certified Genetic Counselor (CGC) credential, issued by the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) to candidates who complete an ACGC-accredited master's program and pass a 200-question exam (170 scored questions plus 30 unscored pretest items) administered over four hours through the testing company Prometric. The field's primary professional association, the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC), was incorporated in 1979 and remains the largest membership organization for genetic counselors in the U.S. and Canada.
Against other advanced-degree occupations this site tracks, the $100,040 genetic counselor median already beats the $99,110 BLS reports for psychologists, an occupation whose largest specialty group typically requires a doctoral degree rather than a master's (that psychologist figure is for May 2025, the latest data on that page, rather than the May 2025 year used above). It still trails physician assistants at $135,880, another occupation that, like genetic counseling, typically enters with a master's degree (a May 2025 figure as well). BLS does not explain why two master's-entry occupations land $35,840 apart, or why a master's-only field outpaces one that often requires a doctorate; the comparison describes what each occupation's own BLS profile reports, not a claim that one degree path pays better than another for a given reader. Another small master's-entry field, orthotists and prosthetists, sits well below genetic counselors at an $81,110 median even with a residency added to the degree.
BLS projects 10% employment growth for genetic counselors from 2025 to 2035, classified as much faster than the average for all occupations, adding an estimated 400 jobs to the 4,200-person 2025 workforce. About 300 openings a year, on average, are projected over the decade, a figure that works out to roughly 3,000 openings across the full ten years against a total net headcount gain of only 400, meaning BLS attributes the large majority of those openings to people transferring to other occupations or leaving the labor force rather than to new positions being created.