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If you’re considering becoming a massage therapist, then you’ve probably also looked into related health and medical occupations. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists two related occupations with similar job duty descriptions to massage therapy. They are:
- Athletic Trainer- Athletic Trainers work to prevent, diagnose, and treat muscle and bone injuries.
- Exercise Physiologist-Exercise Physiologists develop exercise programs that help patients recover from illnesses and injuries, while also helping to improve their exercise performance.
There is a lot of overlap between these different health occupations and deciding which career is best will vary from person to person. However, one of the first factors that should be considered when deciding which health career to pursue is the initial educational investment.
Time Investment and Course Content Comparison
Massage Therapy Certificate: To become a massage therapist generally requires a minimum of 500 in-class hours and an average of 673 hours of initial training.2 Massage Therapy programs are usually designed to be completed in under in a year. For example, the Massage Therapy certificate from Acupuncture and Massage College is designed to be completed in 9-months.
Associate’s Degree: Many people that consider going to massage college have previously enrolled or have graduated from a community college. These colleges typically award an associate’s degree and requires 60 credit hours.
One (1) credit hour is considered to include 1 hour of in-class lecture and 2 hours of homework (or 3 hours for a lab). So an associate’s degree without laboratory work would require a total of 60 hours spent in class and 120 credit hours of homework for a total of 180 hours.
This means that in order to finish an associate’s degree in 2 years, you will have to take a minimum of 12 credit hours a semester, which is considered full-time status. Needless to say, it is very difficult to balance a full-time class load with a full-time job and family obligations.
Bachelor’s Degree: To become an Athletic Trainer or Exercise Physiologist requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university. Typically, this requires 120 credit hours or a total of 120 in-class hours and 240 hours of homework for a total of 360 hours. This the same as an associate’s degree, but twice as long. To work a full-time job and manage family obligations is even more difficult in these circumstances.
Occupational Employment Outlook and Wages
If a degree or certification program takes longer to complete, then you would assume that the pay-off would be more in the long-run, correct? Typically, yes, but not necessarily or rather, not by much more. For example, using the mean wages provided by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (US DOL BLS), we can compare the annual mean wage or average yearly salary for the different occupations, as provided in May of 2016.
Acupuncture and Massage College is located in the Kendall area of Miami, Florida. As such, special attention will be given to the State of Florida and the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division, which for the remainder of this article, I will refer to as the “Miami-area.”
National Annual Mean Wages (2016)
- Massage Therapists: $39,860 per year
- Athletic Trainer: $45,630 per year
- Exercise physiologist: $50,310 per year
Florida Annual Mean Wages (2016)
- Massage Therapists: $43,310 per year
- Athletic Trainer: $45,740 per year
- Exercise physiologist: $47,720 per year
Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division
- Massage Therapists: $39,610 per year
- Athletic Trainer: $51, 67 per year
- Exercise physiologist: N/A
As you can see, while it is true that Athletic Trainers and Exercise physiologists typically make more than Massage Therapists, they require substantially more schooling. Using the Florida annual mean wage and assuming that it only takes four-years to finish a bachelor’s degree and that a person will earn the mean wage right after graduation (both are unlikely), we can figure out how much each month in school is worth.
How much is each month spent in school worth overall?
- Massage Therapists: $43,310 per year/9 month program= $4,812 per month
- Athletic Trainer: $45,740 per year/48 months (4 year) program= $952 per month
- Exercise Physiologist: $47,720 per year/48 months (4 year) program=$994 per month
As you hopefully see now, while Athletic Trainers and Exercise physiologists do earn more per year on average, in Florida, Massage Therapy school is a better financial option overall, because it takes less to gradate, meaning the student can begin work sooner and earn a wage that closer to the state average sooner than an Athletic Trainer or Exercise physiologist.
Massage Classroom vs Undergraduate Classroom
A big difference between massage therapy schools and traditional colleges is the nature of the class and coursework. Traditional colleges typically have to follow a core curriculum and have major requirements. The major requirements are the specific classes pertaining to what your program is in. The core curriculum classes are classes that every undergraduate student has to take to graduate, which are meant to give them a broader liberal arts education.
This means that you will probably have to take several humanities courses, such as writing, foreign languages, and mathematics to graduate.
Meanwhile, massage therapy classes are very specific to the program. There are no classes outside what’s considered practice and related to the field of massage. Secondly, classroom learning is really only emphasized during the beginning portions of the program. After a few weeks, students begin to practice their new massage skills in a clinical setting.
So while some of the classroom knowledge overlaps, such as anatomy and physiology, there is a difference as to what and how the students learn it. Traditional college students will learn via memorization, while Massage students will learn via abundance of hands-on practice.
Again, the reasons for picking a college and field of study are as different as the people that pick them. However, if you would rather finish your degree quicker and enter the workforce earlier, then Massage Therapy is the way to go.
If you’re interested in learning more about a career in massage therapy, please contact our office or download the free ebook below. Acupuncture and Massage College is located in the Kendall area of Miami, Florida.
