Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary
US occupation · SOC 25-1113
Job titles people report: Adjunct Professor, Assistant Professor, Clinical Professor, Faculty Member, Field Education Coordinator, Professor, Social Work Associate Professor, Social Work Instructor, Social Work Lecturer, Social Work Professor
Pay and outlook
- Median annual wage, May 2025
- $77,570
- Half earn more, half earn less
- Middle half earn
- $61,170 – $100,400
- 25th to 75th percentile
- People employed, May 2025
- 12,610
- Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
- Projected change, 2025–35
- +2.6%
- Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)
- Openings a year (projected)
- 1,100
- New jobs plus replacing people who leave
- Typical education to enter
- Doctoral or professional degree
- BLS
- All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
- Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
- Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.
What the work involves
Teach courses in social work. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
Main tasks
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
- Supervise students' laboratory and field work.
- Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as family behavior, child and adolescent mental health, or social intervention evaluation.
- Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter (BLS)
- Doctoral or professional degree
- O*NET Job Zone 5
- Extensive preparation
- Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Interests it suits
The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.
- Social: helping, teaching and caring for people
- Investigative: research, analysis and solving problems with ideas
- Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression
Fields of study that lead here
From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 5 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.
Health & Nursing
- Clinical/Medical Social Work
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Health & Nursing at the Major step.
Where many students take health & nursing
- Western Governors UniversitySalt Lake City, UT · 26% of degrees · 155,088 undergraduates
- Grand Canyon UniversityPhoenix, AZ · 33% of degrees · 73,371 undergraduates
- Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · 8% of degrees · 163,164 undergraduates
- The University of Texas at ArlingtonArlington, TX · 36% of degrees · 32,294 undergraduates
- University of Central FloridaOrlando, FL · 13% of degrees · 59,146 undergraduates
- University of South FloridaTampa, FL · 17% of degrees · 37,207 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Other fields
Our college matcher doesn't offer these fields as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for them here.
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies
- Gerontology
Public Administration and Social Service Professions
- Social Work
- Forensic Social Work
- Social Work, Other
Related careers
Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.
- Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
$84,290 median · +2.2% projected
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary
$75,350 median · +2.5% projected
- Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
$80,340 median · +4% projected
- Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary
$75,870 median · +2.4% projected
- Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary
$80,340 median · +2.7% projected
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
$64,330 median · +2.9% projected
Sources
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0
Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk