Minimum education
750 hours
Statewide entry-education orientation; pathway details remain in the licensing record.
7 sections published
Maryland State Guide
Massage Therapy in Maryland
Explore Maryland massage licensing requirements, professional organizations, insurance considerations, continuing education, workforce data, and official resources, with links to official sources.
Statewide requirements and local rules are identified separately. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
- Regulator
- Maryland State Board of Massage Therapy Examiners
- Verified
- Credential
- Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT); legacy Registered Massage Practitioner (RMP)
- Verified
MD · main-state atlas plateMaryland
Locator · same geometry as the atlas
Local business, zoning, facility, and county requirements were not researched and may apply separately.
Renewal
Licenses and registrations renew every two years; the current period ends October 31, 2026.
Renewal cadence only; deadlines, fees, and mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.
Continuing education
24 hours
Hours count when completed between November 1, 2024 and submission of the 2026 renewal.
Compact legal CE orientation only; subjects, documentation, and renewal mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.
Entry
Verified
Examination — MBLEx, NCBTMB or NCCAOM examination; Maryland jurisprudence examination
Required examination categories from the canonical licensing record.
Verified
Background check — Applicants submit to a criminal history records check under § 6-303 (§ 6-302(b)(6)).
From the licensing record
Scope, title and advertising
Verified
Scope of practice — Maryland's Health Occupations Article defines massage therapy and regulated practice; current law controls exact LMT and RMP boundaries.
From the licensing record
Verified
Protected titles — LMT and legacy RMP titles and practice status are regulated under the Board statute; Chapter 191 preserves existing RMP credentials and ends new issuance.
From the licensing record
Local rules
Verified
Local requirements — No separate statewide massage-establishment license was established in this bounded Board review; local requirements were not researched.
From the licensing record
02 · Education
Massage education in Maryland
Bounded
Legal education requirements, official starting points, and selected MassageData program records are distinct.
See the Maryland school records and official lists →No individual program record cleared this review. That is not evidence that Maryland has no massage programs.
Legal entry requirement
750 hours
VerifiedStatewide entry-education orientation; pathway details remain in the licensing record.
Review the detailed licensing pathway →Official starting point
Maryland Private Career School Oversight
Official Maryland Higher Education Commission starting point for private career-school authorization. Institutional approval and individual massage-license eligibility remain separate determinations.
Open official resource ↗Before enrolling
School approval is not the same as massage licensure, accreditation, or a guarantee of outcomes.
03 · Organizations
Professional organizations
Bounded
These are selected governed organizations, not a comprehensive state directory.
State chapter of a national professional association
American Massage Therapy Association — Maryland Chapter
The official AMTA page identifies the Maryland chapter as a professional-association connection for the state's massage community.
Massage therapists and massage-therapy students interested in AMTA membership.
Member support
- State chapter connection
- AMTA — Maryland Chapter Accessed October 6, 2026
Verified October 6, 2026
04 · Insurance
Insurance considerations
Bounded
The reviewed Maryland licensing, renewal, and regulation pages did not identify a general statewide professional-liability insurance minimum for every massage therapist. This does not resolve employers, establishments, leases, schools, events, contracts, or local requirements.
Limits of this finding
The reviewed sources do not support a universal legal conclusion. General information only—not legal, financial, or coverage advice.
Professional risk context
Compare covered modalities, exclusions, defense costs, policy form, prior-acts treatment, occurrence territory, and reporting duties.
General liability addresses premises and other third-party risks that may be distinct from professional services.
- A narrow state-law finding is not a recommendation to practice uninsured.
- Confirm employer, contract, establishment, landlord, event, and local requirements independently.
- Maryland Board — Apply for Licensure Accessed October 6, 2026
- Maryland Board — Statutes and Regulations Accessed October 6, 2026
Questions for an insurer
- Which modalities, populations, and locations are covered?
- Are defense costs inside or outside policy limits?
- What incident-reporting deadlines and exclusions apply?
05 · Continuing education
Legal orientation and official starting points
Bounded
Legal CE orientation
24 hours
Hours count when completed between November 1, 2024 and submission of the 2026 renewal.
VerifiedCompact legal CE orientation only; subjects, documentation, and renewal mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.
Use official starting points to explore continuing-education resources in Maryland. Legal renewal and continuing-education requirements are on Maryland's CE and renewal page.
See detailed Maryland renewal and CE requirements →Compare Maryland CE and renewal with other states →Official CE starting points
Bounded06 · Workforce
Maryland workforce outlook
Bounded
BLS May 2025 OEWS estimated 1,350 wage-and-salary massage therapist jobs in Maryland, with a median hourly wage of $29.94. These are estimates, not license or practitioner counts.
Employment
Bounded1,350
Estimated wage-and-salary jobs
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS estimate of massage therapist jobs in Maryland in May 2025.
- Method
- BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimate for SOC 31-9011, Massage Therapists, retrieved from the official BLS Public Data API.
- Limitation
- OEWS excludes self-employed workers and estimates wage-and-salary jobs rather than active licenses or all practitioners.
- Comparability
- Comparable only with the same OEWS occupation, measure, geography level, and May 2025 vintage.
- Observed or accessed
- October 5, 2026
- Uncertainty
- 21.3 percent: BLS-reported relative standard error for this estimate.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API — May 2025 OEWS State Series Accessed October 5, 2026
Compensation
Bounded$29.94/hr
Median hourly wage
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS median hourly wage for massage therapists in Maryland in May 2025.
- Method
- BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimate for SOC 31-9011, Massage Therapists, retrieved from the official BLS Public Data API.
- Limitation
- The estimate covers wage-and-salary employment represented in OEWS, excludes self-employed workers, and is not a guaranteed individual wage.
- Comparability
- Comparable only with the same OEWS occupation, measure, geography level, and May 2025 vintage.
- Observed or accessed
- October 5, 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API — May 2025 OEWS State Series Accessed October 5, 2026
$31.45/hr
Mean hourly wage
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS mean hourly wage for massage therapists in Maryland in May 2025.
- Method
- BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimate for SOC 31-9011, Massage Therapists, retrieved from the official BLS Public Data API.
- Limitation
- The estimate covers wage-and-salary employment represented in OEWS, excludes self-employed workers, and is not a guaranteed individual wage.
- Comparability
- Comparable only with the same OEWS occupation, measure, geography level, and May 2025 vintage.
- Observed or accessed
- October 5, 2026
- Uncertainty
- 9.9 percent: BLS-reported relative standard error for this estimate.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API — May 2025 OEWS State Series Accessed October 5, 2026
$65,420
Annual mean wage
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS annual mean wage for massage therapists in Maryland in May 2025.
- Method
- BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimate for SOC 31-9011, Massage Therapists, retrieved from the official BLS Public Data API.
- Limitation
- The estimate covers wage-and-salary employment represented in OEWS, excludes self-employed workers, and is not a guaranteed individual wage.
- Comparability
- Comparable only with the same OEWS occupation, measure, geography level, and May 2025 vintage.
- Observed or accessed
- October 5, 2026
- Uncertainty
- 9.9 percent: BLS-reported relative standard error for this estimate.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API — May 2025 OEWS State Series Accessed October 5, 2026
Population universe
OEWS measures wage-and-salary jobs by occupation through an employer survey.
Self-employment
OEWS excludes self-employed workers, which is material in massage therapy; national self-employment context must not be presented as a state-specific percentage.
Workforce source set
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API — May 2025 OEWS State Series Accessed October 5, 2026
07 · Resources
Official resources
BoundedEvery route leaves MassageData.
A selected official starting set, not a complete source ledger.
- licensingMaryland State Board of Massage Therapy ExaminersOfficial Maryland entry point for massage therapist applications, renewal, CE, examinations, fees, statutes, regulations, and Board notices.
- educationMaryland Private Career School OversightOfficial Maryland Higher Education Commission starting point for private career-school authorization. Institutional approval and individual massage-license eligibility remain separate determinations.
08 · Method
How this guide is made
Every field on this page carries a knowledge state, and every state is written as a word before it is drawn as a colour.
- Verified
- We checked the cited source on the stated date and the requirement exists as published. The date is the claim: it says when we looked, not that the rule is permanent.
- Bounded
- We know part of the answer and can say exactly where our knowledge stops. The boundary is stated in words and the fuller source is linked. A bounded finding is the edge of what we know, never an error.
What this guide does not determine
Local business, zoning, facility, and professional rules may apply in addition to statewide requirements. Confirm current requirements with the responsible authority before acting.
Sources and reviewBounded
This guide projects 17 distinct official or first-party source links from the governed records. Reviewed October 6, 2026.