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Massage therapists

Also called Licensed massage therapist, LMT, Certified massage therapist, CMT, Clinical massage therapist

In brief

In May 2025, BLS counted 98,790 US massage therapists, with median pay of $58,450 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2003, the highest was 107,240, in May 2019. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 10,000 from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for massage therapists: Practice management software and digital scheduling, 2010 to 2023.

What the sources say

Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 15.3% from 2025 to 2035.

BLS Employment Projections 2025-35

AI exposure studies

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

Last updated .

Cite this page
APA

Future History. (2026, October 11). Massage therapists: jobs and pay since 1900 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/31-9011

Chicago

Future History. "Massage therapists: jobs and pay since 1900." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/31-9011.

BibTeX

@misc{futurehistory_31_9011, author = {{Future History}}, title = {Massage therapists: jobs and pay since 1900}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/31-9011}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }

The access date is today's date on your device.

drag to travel through time
187519001925195019752000now
Country
2026
Known then as Medical Gymnast / Kinesitherapist (Ling system practitioners)
Known then as Masseuse / Masseur (soft-tissue specialists)
Known then as Masseuse / Masseur / Physiotherapist (partially merged with physical therapy)
Known then as Massage Practitioner / Bodywork Practitioner (holistic revival era)
Known then as Massage Therapist / Licensed Massage Therapist (licensing era)
Known then as Massage Therapists (BLS SOC 31-9011)
Known today as Massage Therapists (BLS SOC 31-9011)
Projected to still be called Massage Therapists (BLS SOC 31-9011)
Data from the May 2025 survey
US Employment
99K
Est.

Stated in source: BLS OEWS

Official statistic
Report an error
Median Annual Wage
$58,450
Est.

≈ $56,951 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)

Official statistic
Report an error
Beat · 1856

George Henry Taylor and Charles Fayette Taylor open the Remedial Hygienic Institute in New York City, the first US clinic offering systematic soft-tissue manipulation based on Pehr Henrik Ling's Swedish movement system. The clinic introduces the vocabulary of modern therapeutic massage to American medical practice and trains the first generation of "medical gymnasts" on US soil.

Beat · 1890

Boston's Posse Gymnasium opens as one of the first dedicated training schools for masseuses in the US. By the 1890s the terms "masseuse" (for women) and "masseur" (for men) are standard; trained practitioners distinguish themselves from lay "rubbers" by claiming systematic anatomy and physiology knowledge. The profession is small, urban, and disproportionately employs women, who can earn independent incomes outside domestic service.

Beat · 1916

Ohio becomes the first US state to regulate massage as a "limited branch of medicine." Agnes Bridget Forbes receives her license and becomes the first licensed massage therapist in North America. The Ohio model, which ties massage regulation to the Medical Board, becomes a template that other states will eventually follow, though adoption is slow: most states do not regulate massage for another 70 years.

Beat · 1943

The postgraduate class of the College of Swedish Massage in Chicago forms the American Association of Masseurs and Masseuses (AAMM) on August 16, 1943. The founding is a direct response to the profession's degraded public image: the term "massage parlor" had acquired associations with prostitution that were suppressing the legitimate practice of therapeutic massage. The AAMM's founding mission is to establish ethical standards and advocate for legitimate professional practice, explicitly separating therapeutic massage from non-therapeutic commercial massage.

Beat · 1983

The American Massage and Therapy Association removes the ampersand from its name and becomes the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA). The name change signals a decisive break from the tradition of defining massage therapy as subordinate to physical therapy. AMTA formally asserts that massage therapy is "a separate professional field unto itself." This rebranding accelerates the profession's independent licensing campaign in state legislatures.

Beat · 1992

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) launches its national certification examination, establishing a portable, non-state-specific credential that allows trained therapists to demonstrate competency to employers across state lines. By the end of the 1990s, seventeen states have passed massage licensing laws. The dual wave of national certification and state licensing transforms the occupation from an informal trade into a credentialed healthcare profession with defined scope of practice.

Beat · 2002

Massage Envy opens its first franchise location in Scottsdale, Arizona. The franchise model, offering 60-minute massages at $49-59 per session under a monthly membership structure, makes therapeutic massage accessible to middle-income consumers at scale for the first time. By 2010 Massage Envy has over 700 locations nationally. The franchise model drives the most significant expansion in employed massage therapist headcount in the profession's history, while simultaneously creating a new employer-employee dynamic that concentrates bargaining power with franchise operators and compresses therapist per-session earnings.

Beat · 2020

COVID-19 forces the near-total shutdown of in-person massage practice from March through June 2020 in most US states, with many states classifying massage therapy as a "non-essential service" and requiring closure. The pandemic is the most severe employment disruption the profession has experienced: BLS OEWS data shows significant employment decline in 2020-2021 before recovery. The shutdown also exposes the economic vulnerability of a predominantly self-employed profession with no sick leave, unemployment insurance eligibility issues for independent contractors, and no remote-work alternative for a hands-on occupation.

Beat · 2024

Aescape deploys the first commercially available fully automated robotic massage table at Equinox gyms in New York City (spring 2024) and at Four Seasons Resort Orlando (October 2024). The system uses sensor arrays mapping over one million 3D body data points to apply seven massage techniques; sessions cost $60 for 30 minutes. TIME Magazine names Aescape one of its 200 Best Inventions of 2024. AMTA responds by noting the enduring clinical differentiation of human therapeutic touch and identifying robotic massage as a separate market segment rather than a direct substitute for licensed therapeutic massage.

How to read this number

OEWS is a point-in-time survey snapshot, not a continuous time series; BLS advises against using it for year-over-year trend comparison.

Each dot is a cited figure over time; the dotted line only links them (values between aren't measured). Hollow dots are estimates.

Official statistic: Copied by a script from a statistics agency table or a published study's table, not retyped by hand. BLS figures and the forecast and exposure tables are also re-checked against that table on every data run. Researched context: Researched from the cited source rather than copied from it by a script, so it is not machine-checked yet. Spot a mistake? Each figure has a “Report an error” link.

Cited forecasts · present → 2035

Will AI replace massage therapists? What the research says

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.

What published forecasts say
Forecast change in the number of people doing this work, as published by each named source. Bars share one scale on every role, centred on zero and reaching the end at ±30%. Grey marks a small change, 3% or less either way.
BLS Employment Projections 2025-35
→ 2035
+15.3%
BLS National Employment Matrix, 2025-35 cycle, line for SOC 31-9011 (Massage therapists): 155.4 thousand jobs in 2025, projected 179.1 thousand in 2035, a change of +23.7 thousand (+15.3%). Matrix employment counts all jobs in the occupation, including self-employed workers (35.6% of this occupation in 2025). The average for all occupations in this cycle is +3.5%.
Official statisticReport an error
How exposed is this work to AI (research measures)
Scores as published by each study. Each row says what it measures. These measure what AI could technically do, not forecasts of jobs lost.
Eloundou et al. (2023), "GPTs are GPTs"
2023 study · Share of tasks exposed to LLMs (β, human-rated)
18.5%
of tasks
What this measures

Published occupation-level exposure from the paper's occ_level.csv for O*NET-SOC 31-9011.00 Massage Therapists. Shown: human-rated β = 0.185, the share of the occupation's tasks an LLM could do in at least half the time at equal quality, counting tasks that need LLM-powered software at half weight (β = E1 + 0.5 × E2). Other published measures for this occupation: human-rated α (LLM alone) 0.074 and γ (all LLM-assisted) 0.296; GPT-4-rated β 0.074. This measures how much of the work an LLM could touch, not how many jobs disappear.

Official statisticReport an error
Today, in this role

What's changing day to day for massage therapists

Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.

AI is sitting alongside you hereDocument each session with SOAP notes (Subjective findings, Objective observations, Assessment of tissue response, Plan for follow-up)

Document each session with SOAP notes (Subjective findings, Objective observations, Assessment of tissue response, Plan for follow-up); use AI voice-dictation tools like Noterro Scribe to speak observations while washing hands between clients and have the note auto-structured, then review and finalize before the next appointment.[8],[9],[10]

Tools picking this up
Where your edge is

Treat post-session notes as a clinical document, not a formality: specificity in tissue findings and client response is what justifies insurance billing and builds a treatment record that supports medically necessary care determinations. AI scribes draft structure; the clinical details that support billing accuracy still require your judgment.

AI is sitting alongside you hereManage the appointment calendar and client retention pipeline using AI-assisted scheduling platforms (MassageBook, ClinicSense) that automate booking confirmations, 24-48 hour reminders, waitlist filling when cancellations occur, and post-session follow-ups

Manage the appointment calendar and client retention pipeline using AI-assisted scheduling platforms (MassageBook, ClinicSense) that automate booking confirmations, 24-48 hour reminders, waitlist filling when cancellations occur, and post-session follow-ups; review AI-generated retention campaign drafts (birthday offers, reactivation sequences) before they send.[11],[12],[13]

Where your edge is

Configure your AI scheduling platform to reflect your actual availability constraints and session types: add-on services, intake-required first visits, specialty modalities. Therapists who maintain a full calendar via automated retention keep utilization high, which is where independent practice becomes economically sustainable.

AI is sitting alongside you hereSubmit insurance claims for medically necessary massage therapy using CPT codes (97124 massage, 97140 manual therapy techniques)

Submit insurance claims for medically necessary massage therapy using CPT codes (97124 massage, 97140 manual therapy techniques); use AI-assisted billing platforms to automate claim preparation, track payer responses, and manage denials; reconcile payments against expected reimbursement rates and appeal underpayments with clinical documentation.[14],[2]

Tools picking this up
Where your edge is

Obtain NCBTMB-approved continuing education in medical billing for massage therapy and learn the specific payer policies for your state. Insurance-billing therapists earn significantly more per session in medical or rehabilitation settings than cash-only practitioners, and AI billing tools now make claims processing accessible without a dedicated billing staff.

Where massage therapists go next

Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.

  • Physical Therapists
    US median pay
    $102,760 (May 2025)
    BLS outlook 2025-35
    +11.9%
  • AcupuncturistsNo timeline for this role yet

What each move takes

A direction you could grow

Physical Therapists

Physical therapists (15% growth 2024-2034) represent the high-ceiling clinical upgrade for massage therapists who want to practice rehabilitation medicine within an insured healthcare framework. The pivot requires a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree (a few years of graduate study) and state licensure. The transition is demanding, but massage therapists enter DPT programs with substantial advantages: hands-on anatomy knowledge, client communication skills, experience with musculoskeletal assessment, and a visceral understanding of how soft tissue responds to manual intervention. Many DPT programs now offer bridge pathways that credit prior healthcare experience.

What you'd add
  • · Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from a CAPTE-accredited program (3 years)
  • · NPTE (National Physical Therapy Examination) licensure
  • · Neurological and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation foundations beyond the musculoskeletal scope
  • · Exercise prescription and therapeutic modalities (ultrasound, electrical stimulation, traction)
  • · Medicare/Medicaid billing and insurance documentation in a rehabilitation setting
What it takesA real upskill, but a natural one
Tools of the era

How has the work of massage therapists changed since 1856?

The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.

  • Padded table + manual technique codification (Ling system, tapotement, effleurage)

    The foundational technology of massage therapy is the padded table and the practitioner's trained hands. Before the table became standard, massage was performed with clients on beds or floors; the padded, height-adjustable table that emerged from the medical gymnastic tradition of the 1850s allowed the practitioner to work with mechanical advantage and access all body surfaces systematically. Pehr Henrik Ling's codified technique framework, brought to the US by the Taylor brothers in 1856, named the major stroke types (effleurage, petrissage, tapotement, friction, vibration) and provided a vocabulary that standardized instruction and professional communication for the first time. Swedish massage as a teachable, transmissible system, rather than an individual folk practice, is the foundational "technology" of the occupation.

  • Mechanical vibrators and heat lamps (early electromechanical tools)

    From the 1920s onward, electromechanical vibrators and therapeutic heat lamps became common adjuncts in massage and physical culture practices. Battery-powered and then plug-in vibrators were marketed to physiotherapists and masseuses as productivity tools, allowing vibration-based techniques to be applied continuously without fatiguing the practitioner's arm. Infrared heat lamps, diathermy machines, and hot-stone variants became part of the treatment room toolkit in the 1930s and 1940s. These tools shifted some aspects of therapeutic technique from purely manual to partially instrument-assisted, but the core soft-tissue manipulation remained a hand-based skill. The tools were broadly available and did not require specialized credentials to purchase or operate, which contributed to the profession's confused status: masseuses and beauty parlor operators used the same devices.

  • Counterculture bodywork modalities (Rolfing, Shiatsu, Trager, CranioSacral) + multi-modality training

    The 1960s and 1970s holistic health movement revived and diversified massage therapy by introducing distinct bodywork modalities from outside the Ling/Swedish tradition: Ida Rolf's structural integration (Rolfing, developed in the 1960s and formally taught from 1971), Shiatsu (introduced to the US from Japan in the 1960s), Milton Trager's movement re-education system (Trager Approach, 1970s), and John Upledger's CranioSacral therapy (1970s). Each came with its own training school and certification body. The expansion of modalities created a richer professional toolkit: a therapist could now specialize, combine approaches, and address clinical conditions that standard Swedish massage did not reach. It also created the modern "massage therapist" identity as distinct from the earlier "masseuse" or "physiotherapist" and established the multi-modality, continuing-education model of professional development that still defines the field.

  • State licensing, NCBTMB certification, and the franchise spa model (Massage Envy 2002)

    The professionalization technology of the 1990s was not a physical tool but a regulatory and institutional infrastructure: seventeen states passed massage therapy licensing laws between 1990 and 2000, the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) launched its national certification examination in 1992, and AMTA established accreditation standards for training programs. These credentials transformed "masseuse" into "licensed massage therapist" and enabled the spa and wellness industry expansion that followed. By 2010 Massage Envy had hundreds of locations and had demonstrated that a scalable, volume-based employment model for massage therapists was viable. The franchise model drove significant OEWS-trackable wage-and-salary employment growth, even as critics noted it compressed therapist earnings and treated the service as a commodity.

    Effect on the work

    The franchise spa model (Massage Envy, Hand and Stone, Elements Massage) grew employed massage therapist headcount substantially in the 2000s and 2010s, providing the main channel by which the BLS OEWS count grew between 2000 and the mid-2010s. It also contributed to a persistent wage bifurcation: franchise-employed therapists earned below the OEWS median while clinical and independent practitioners earned above it.

  • Practice management software and digital scheduling (MassageBook, ClinicSense, Jane)

    The 2010s brought a wave of SaaS practice management platforms built specifically for independent health practitioners: MassageBook (founded 2012), ClinicSense, and Jane App. These tools automated the administrative layer of independent massage practice: online booking, automated appointment reminders, digital intake forms, payment processing, and client retention campaigns. For the large self-employed majority, this was the first time the business operations side of running a massage practice became manageable without a dedicated receptionist or office staff. Therapists who adopted these platforms reduced no-show rates, recovered admin time, and increased calendar utilization. The digital scheduling era did not change the therapeutic work itself but significantly changed the economics of independent practice.

  • AI voice-to-SOAP scribes + robotic massage (Noterro Scribe 2024; Aescape commercial deployment 2024)

    Two distinct AI tools entered commercial deployment for massage therapy in 2024, representing different levels of threat and opportunity. Noterro Scribe (launched July 2024) is a voice-to-chart AI scribe that listens to the post-session dictation and auto-structures spoken observations into properly formatted SOAP notes, saving therapists many hours per month on documentation. The tool augments rather than replaces: the therapist still observes, palpates, and assesses; the AI only organizes the written record. Aescape uses sensor arrays to map over one million 3D body data points and replicates seven massage techniques for many minutes. This represents the first commercially deployed AI system that performs therapeutic soft-tissue work without a human therapist in the room. Aescape is positioned for high-volume, standardized, convenience-tier massage; clinical, specialized, and injury-rehabilitation work remains beyond its capability. AMTA and Microsoft Research (July 2025) both identify massage therapy as among the least AI-affected professions overall, citing the irreplaceable role of therapeutic touch and real-time palpation feedback in clinical work.

    Effect on the work

    Aescape and similar robotic systems represent a structural threat to the high-volume, standardized end of the massage market (franchise spas, hotel wellness centers, gym recovery). The clinical, medical, and specialized therapeutic tier is structurally differentiated from this segment by both practitioner skill requirements and client clinical needs. The net employment effect through 2030 is estimated as modest displacement at the commoditized tier, offset by continued growth in clinical and sports medicine settings. BLS projects 15% employment growth 2024-2034 even accounting for known automation trends.

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Massage Therapists employment and pay by year

On record since1856
Latest US employment98,790 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Latest US median pay$58,450 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Outlook+15.3% by 2035Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35Official statisticReport an error

In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

  • Canada (NOC 32201)

    Employment, 2020
    37,720, Statistics Canada Census 2021 Official statistic Report an errorStatistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 32201 Massage therapists, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
    Median pay, 2020
    C$29,200, Statistics Canada Census 2021 Official statistic Report an errorStatistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 32201 Massage therapists, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.
View all 27 years of cited US data, each linked to its source
YearUS employmentAnnual pay (median unless marked)SourceReport
190010,000n/aEst., AMTA Researched contextReport
19435,000n/aEst., AMTA Timeline Researched contextReport
199030,000n/aEst., AMTA Timeline Researched contextReport
200097,000$22,000BLS CPS 2000 Researched contextReport
200329,940$28,670BLS OEWS May 2003 Official statisticReport
200432,200$31,960BLS OEWS May 2004 Official statisticReport
200537,670$32,890BLS OEWS May 2005 Official statisticReport
200641,920$33,400BLS OEWS May 2006 Official statisticReport
200745,920$34,870BLS OEWS May 2007 Official statisticReport
200851,250$34,900BLS OEWS May 2008 Official statisticReport
200955,920$35,230BLS OEWS May 2009 Official statisticReport
201060,040$34,900BLS OEWS May 2010 Official statisticReport
201163,810$35,830BLS OEWS May 2011 Official statisticReport
201271,040$35,970BLS OEWS May 2012 Official statisticReport
201379,040$35,920BLS OEWS May 2013 Official statisticReport
201487,670$37,180BLS OEWS May 2014 Official statisticReport
201592,090$38,040BLS OEWS May 2015 Official statisticReport
201695,830$39,860BLS OEWS May 2016 Official statisticReport
2017103,300$39,990BLS OEWS May 2017 Official statisticReport
2018105,160$41,420BLS OEWS May 2018 Official statisticReport
2019107,240$42,820BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statisticReport
202085,040$43,620BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statisticReport
202181,030$46,910BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statisticReport
202286,270$49,860BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statisticReport
202392,650$55,310BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statisticReport
202496,040$57,950BLS OEWS May 2024 Official statisticReport
202598,790$58,450BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statisticReport
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