Minimum education
650 hours
Statewide entry-education orientation; pathway details remain in the licensing record.
7 sections published
South Carolina State Guide
Massage Therapy in South Carolina
Explore South Carolina 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
- South Carolina Board of Massage/Bodywork Therapy
- Verified
- Credential
- Licensed Massage/Bodywork Therapist
- Verified
SC · main-state atlas plateSouth Carolina
Locator · same geometry as the atlas
Local business, zoning, and municipal requirements were not researched and may apply independently.
Renewal
Licenses renew every two years.
Renewal cadence only; deadlines, fees, and mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.
Continuing education
12 hours
The 12 hours are earned in the licensing period from July 1 of an even year to June 30 of the next even year; the first renewal is exempt.
Compact legal CE orientation only; subjects, documentation, and renewal mechanics are in the state's CE and renewal requirements.
Entry
Verified
Examination — FSMTB or Board-approved examination
Required examination categories from the canonical licensing record.
Verified
Background check — State and FBI criminal background checks are required.
From the licensing record
Verified
Additional requirements — Applicants meet age, secondary-education, program, examination, background, disclosure, and Board documentation conditions.
From the licensing record
Renewal and continuing education
Verified
Required subjects — No universal ethics-subject minimum was identified in the reviewed Board guidance.
From the licensing record
Verified
Carryover — Hours cannot be reused for a later cycle; no carryover authorization was identified.
From the licensing record
Coming from another state
Verified
Endorsement or reciprocity — Endorsement is available for a qualifying license from a jurisdiction with substantially equivalent standards, subject to current evidence and application conditions.
From the licensing record
Scope, title and advertising
Verified
Scope of practice — South Carolina defines massage/bodywork therapy through systems of structured touch and manipulation of soft tissue using specified methods for therapeutic purposes.
From the licensing record
Verified
Protected titles — A Board license is required to practice or hold out as a massage/bodywork therapist, subject to statutory exemptions.
From the licensing record
Local rules
Verified
Local requirements — South Carolina separately licenses massage/bodywork establishments and sole-practitioner establishments; local requirements were not researched.
From the licensing record
02 · Education
Massage education in South Carolina
Bounded
Legal education requirements, official starting points, and selected MassageData program records are distinct.
See the South Carolina school records and official lists →No individual program record cleared this review. That is not evidence that South Carolina has no massage programs.
Legal entry requirement
650 hours
VerifiedStatewide entry-education orientation; pathway details remain in the licensing record.
Review the detailed licensing pathway →Official starting point
South Carolina Non-Public Postsecondary Institution Licensing
Official South Carolina Commission on Higher Education oversight page, including its massage-program directory. Institutional authorization and 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 — South Carolina Chapter
The official AMTA page identifies the South Carolina 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 — South Carolina Chapter Accessed October 6, 2026
Verified October 6, 2026
04 · Insurance
Insurance considerations
Bounded
The reviewed South Carolina statute and application did not identify a general statewide professional-liability insurance minimum for every massage/bodywork 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.
- South Carolina Code Title 40, Chapter 30 Accessed October 6, 2026
- South Carolina Massage/Bodywork Application Forms 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
12 hours
The 12 hours are earned in the licensing period from July 1 of an even year to June 30 of the next even year; the first renewal is exempt.
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 South Carolina. Legal renewal and continuing-education requirements are on South Carolina's CE and renewal page.
See detailed South Carolina renewal and CE requirements →Compare South Carolina CE and renewal with other states →Official CE starting points
Bounded06 · Workforce
South Carolina workforce outlook
Bounded
BLS May 2025 OEWS estimated 1,840 wage-and-salary massage therapist jobs in South Carolina, with a median hourly wage of $27.88. These are estimates, not license or practitioner counts.
Employment
Bounded1,840
Estimated wage-and-salary jobs
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS estimate of massage therapist jobs in South Carolina 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
- 11.7 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$27.88/hr
Median hourly wage
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS median hourly wage for massage therapists in South Carolina 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
$27.28/hr
Mean hourly wage
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS mean hourly wage for massage therapists in South Carolina 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
- 7.3 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
$56,750
Annual mean wage
Definition, limits, and sources
- Definition
- BLS OEWS annual mean wage for massage therapists in South Carolina 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
- 7.3 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
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.
- licensingSouth Carolina Board of Massage/Bodywork TherapyOfficial South Carolina entry point for massage/bodywork therapist and establishment applications, renewal, fees, CE, law, and Board notices.
- educationSouth Carolina Non-Public Postsecondary Institution LicensingOfficial South Carolina Commission on Higher Education oversight page, including its massage-program directory. Institutional authorization and 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 12 distinct official or first-party source links from the governed records. Reviewed October 6, 2026.