OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Evaluate and treat musculoskeletal injuries or illnesses. Provide preventive, therapeutic, emergency, and rehabilitative care.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($76K): Biochemical Sciences
Largest undergraduate program (16.5% of workers): Treatment Therapy Professions
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Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Athletic trainers typically do the following:
- Apply protective or injury-preventive devices, such as tape, bandages, and braces
- Recognize and evaluate injuries
- Provide first aid or emergency care
- Develop and carry out rehabilitation programs for injured athletes
- Plan and implement comprehensive programs to prevent injury and illness among athletes
- Perform administrative tasks, such as keeping records and writing reports on injuries and treatment programs
Athletic trainers work with people of all ages and all skill levels, from young children to soldiers and professional athletes. Athletic trainers are usually one of the first healthcare providers on the scene when injuries occur on the field. They work under the direction of a licensed physician and with other healthcare providers, often discussing specific injuries and treatment options or evaluating and treating patients, as directed by a physician. Some athletic trainers meet with a team physician or consulting physician regularly.
An athletic trainer’s administrative responsibilities may include regular meetings with an athletic director or another administrative officer to deal with budgets, purchasing, policy implementation, and other business-related issues. Athletic trainers plan athletic programs that are compliant with federal and state regulations; for example, they may ensure a football program adheres to laws related to athlete concussions.
Athletic trainers should not be confused with fitness trainers and instructors, which include personal trainers.
Salary
Median salary: $49,860 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $41,310 and $61,280.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Athletic Trainers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of athletic trainers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Responsible for Others' Health (70%)
- Exposed to Disease or Infections (68%)
- Consequence of Error (55%)
- High Conflict Frequency (50%)
- Time Pressure (49%)
- Minor Burns, Cuts, Bites (42%)
- Unpleasant or Angry People (39%)
- Exposed to Contaminants (37%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Athletic Trainers? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Compassion
Athletic trainers work with athletes and patients who may be in considerable pain or discomfort. The trainers must be sympathetic while providing treatments.
Decisionmaking skills
Athletic trainers must make informed clinical decisions that could affect the health or livelihood of patients.
Detail oriented
Athletic trainers must record patients’ progress accurately and ensure that they are receiving the appropriate treatments or practicing the correct fitness regimen.
Interpersonal skills
Athletic trainers must have strong interpersonal skills in order to manage difficult situations. They must communicate well with others, including physicians, patients, athletes, coaches, and parents.
Injury and Illness
About 25 athletic trainers become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 56% of other careers. The most common specific concerns detailed following.
Sprains, strains, tears
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by athletic trainers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), athletic trainers typically hold a bachelor's degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for athletic trainers
Athletic trainers need at least a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Master’s degree programs are also common, and may be preferred by some employers. Degree programs have classroom and clinical components, including science and health-related courses, such as biology, anatomy, physiology, and nutrition.
The Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) accredits hundreds of athletic trainer programs, including postprofessional and residency athletic trainer programs.
High school students interested in postsecondary athletic training programs should take courses in anatomy, physiology, and physics.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for athletic trainers
Nearly all states require athletic trainers to be licensed or certified; requirements vary by state. For specific requirements, contact the particular state’s licensing or credentialing board or athletic trainer association.
The Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer (BOC) offers the standard certification examination that most states use for licensing athletic trainers. Certification requires graduating from a CAATE-accredited program and passing the BOC exam. To maintain certification, athletic trainers must adhere to the BOC Standards of Professional Practice and take continuing education courses.
Education level of Specialized Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Workers
About 66% of specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 64% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers
This table shows the college majors held by people working as specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
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Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
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The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
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Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Specialized Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Workers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most athletic trainers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as athletic trainers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where athletic trainers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Specialized Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Workers (ACS for all specialties)
Employment
14% of Specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 14% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 55% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers and gender
With 62% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 74% of careers.
Gender of Specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers
Men (38%)
Women (62%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers, with the
median salary for men 16%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers.
Race/origin of specialized healthcare practitioners and technical workers
White (76% )
Black (13% )
Asian (5% )
Multiracial (2% )
Other (2% )
American Indian (1% )
Hispanic (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
