BCBA & RBT Salary in New York (2026)
From live job-posting data + Medicaid rate records. Updated July 2026.
This page is for ABA practice owners in New York. It shows what the market pays right now, who is hiring, and why. Use it to set offers that keep your team.
Posting-Disclosed Pay
| Role | Median (annualized) | Range | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| BCBA | $93,750 | $77,500 – $156,000 | 14 New York postings that disclose pay |
| RBT | $49,920 | $33,280 – $62,400 | 15 New York postings that disclose pay |
Pay data comes from public LinkedIn postings that state a number. Hourly rates are annualized at 2,080 hours. Small samples are supplemented with national data.
Who Is Hiring in New York
Most active employers (BCBA roles): Autism Learning Partners, Dragonfly Cares, Yellow Bus ABA, Parson’s Pre School, A Better Way ABA.
Busiest hiring cities: New York, Queens, Rochester, Amherst, Jamaica.
Working as a Behavior Analyst in New York
New York licenses behavior analysts under Education Law Article 167, in effect since July 1, 2014. The state has two tiers: Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA), which requires a master’s degree, a passing exam score, and a minimum age of 21, and Certified Behavior Analyst Assistant (CBAA), a paraprofessional tier that requires a bachelor’s degree and a passing exam. Both are overseen by the New York State Education Department (NYSED), Office of the Professions. CBAAs must work under an LBA’s supervision and cannot independently diagnose or bill Medicaid.
Since November 2022, NYSED accepts the national BACB certification exam to satisfy the LBA exam requirement, replacing the older state-specific NYLBA exam. That didn’t remove the licensing requirement, but it made it far easier for out-of-state BCBAs to get licensed here. A 2025 New York Department of Health evidence review credits this change with a jump in LBA licenses issued: 207 in 2022 to 850 in 2023.
The upside for anyone already licensed here: New York has a real supply gap. The state had the lowest per-capita supply of behavior analysts in the Northeast in 2020, despite spending more per pupil on public education than any other state that year. A 2023 study found New York’s aggregate LBA supply was 3.2 per 100 students with ASD in 2022, less than half the Council of Autism Service Providers’ benchmark of 6.67, and no region in the state met that benchmark. That shortage translates into leverage for licensed clinicians and staffing pressure for owners trying to grow.
RBT vs. BT in New York
New York’s Medicaid ABA benefit is built around its own NYSED credentials, not the BACB’s RBT credential. RBT certification isn’t required to deliver billable hours here. What Medicaid does allow is “unlicensed individuals,” or technicians, carrying out scripted treatment-plan activities under an LBA’s direct supervision, per NYSED scope-of-practice rules.
There’s a hard ratio on how many of these staff one LBA can run: no more than 6 CBAAs or unlicensed individuals at a time, in any combination. The LBA must supervise each one for at least 5% of their monthly service hours, including at least 2 real-time, face-to-face contacts per month (phone, email, and text don’t count). For job seekers, this means the RBT credential alone doesn’t carry the weight it does in states that require it for Medicaid billing; New York’s own CBAA/unlicensed-individual tiers matter more here. For owners, the 1-LBA-to-6-tech supervision cap is the real ceiling on how many billable staff you can run per licensed supervisor, and it shapes staffing model and caseload economics directly.
Common Questions
How much does a BCBA make in New York?
Job postings in New York that disclose pay show a median around $93,750 per year.
Is it hard to hire BCBAs in New York?
A LinkedIn search for BCBA roles in New York returns 1,000+ results from the past month (including related roles). The busiest hiring markets are New York, Queens, Rochester, Amherst, Jamaica.
What drives BCBA pay in a state?
Three things: Medicaid and commercial reimbursement rates, how many certified analysts live in the state, and demand from autism prevalence and insurance mandates.
Compare neighboring states: New Jersey · Connecticut · Pennsylvania · Massachusetts · Vermont