What are the correlates of substance abuse treatment counselor salaries?

Abstract

This article identifies and measures the key correlates of substance abuse treatment (SAT) counselor salaries. The data come from the 2002–2003 wave of the National Treatment Center Study that consists of approximately 1,500 full-time counselors from nationally representative samples of public and private SAT facilities. We used interval regression models to estimate the relationship between annual salary and numerous counselor and organizational characteristics. We found that counselor characteristics associated with annual salary include education, tenure in the SAT field, licensure, race, recovery status, and administrative responsibilities above and beyond duties as a full-time counselor. Organizational characteristics associated with counselor salary include accreditation status, hospital ownership, and the population density of the county where the facility is located. Taken together, these factors explain approximately 50% of the total variation in SAT counselor salaries.