Physical Therapist Salary: What the Job Pays
Treating patients to restore movement and manage pain after injury, surgery or illness.
Last updated
- Median
- $102,760
- Bottom 10%
- $77,140
- Top 10%
- $135,140
- Employed
- 267,330
What a Physical Therapist Earns
The national median is $102,760. Half of everyone in this occupation earns between $86,160 and $121,160, and the full published range runs from $77,140 at the tenth percentile to $135,140 at the ninetieth. The occupation employs 267,330 people.
A median is a midpoint, not an offer, and this occupation's range is wide for a specific reason. Setting and ownership. Home health and skilled nursing roles pay above outpatient clinic roles, often by a wide margin, and travel contracts sit higher again. Years in practice moves the number far less than which of those settings you work in.
So the number to plan around is not the median. It is the quartile you can realistically reach given the setting you would work in, which for this occupation is the variable that moves pay most.
How a DHSc Degree Affects Physical Therapist Pay
Physical therapists are one of the largest groups enrolling in DHSc programs, and they arrive already licensed through a DPT. The DHSc adds no scope of practice. What they generally want from it is a route into clinic leadership, education or faculty work.
The Full Pay Range for Physical Therapists
Five percentiles and a mean, which is everything the wage survey publishes for this occupation nationally.
| Point in the Range | Annual Pay | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $77,140 | Nine in ten earn more than this |
| 25th percentile | $86,160 | The bottom of the middle half |
| Median | $102,760 | Half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $121,160 | The top of the middle half |
| 90th percentile | $135,140 | One in ten earn more than this |
| Mean | $105,280 | The average, pulled upward by the top of the range |
The mean is within $2,520 of the median, so pay in this occupation clusters rather than spreading. The middle half sits inside a $35,000 band. You can predict what this job pays more reliably than you can for most of the careers a DHSc points at.
Where Physical Therapists Jobs Are
The ten states with the most jobs, which is a different list from the ten that pay best. Together they hold 54% of the 267,330 jobs nationally.
| State | Employed | Median |
|---|---|---|
| California | 26,580 | $124,190 |
| Texas | 21,870 | $105,810 |
| New York | 20,940 | $100,660 |
| Florida | 16,290 | $101,040 |
| Pennsylvania | 11,710 | $101,380 |
| Ohio | 10,280 | $103,050 |
| Illinois | 9,800 | $105,250 |
| New Jersey | 9,750 | $112,140 |
| Michigan | 8,630 | $100,900 |
| Virginia | 7,630 | $101,450 |
Employment and pay do not line up. A state can hold a large share of the jobs and pay near the national median, and a small state can top the pay table on a few hundred posts. Read the two tables together: the first tells you what the work pays, the second tells you where the work is.
Physical Therapists Pay by State
Every state and territory that publishes a median for this occupation, highest first.
| State | Median | Bottom 10% | Top 10% | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $124,190 | $85,580 | $163,960 | 26,580 |
| Alaska | $115,280 | $97,950 | $133,690 | 680 |
| New Jersey | $112,140 | $84,640 | $140,040 | 9,750 |
| Nevada | $111,250 | $86,260 | $190,620 | 2,030 |
| Maryland | $106,890 | $79,990 | $138,630 | 3,940 |
| New Mexico | $106,880 | $77,260 | $146,400 | 1,330 |
| Washington | $105,950 | $78,300 | $137,560 | 5,370 |
| Texas | $105,810 | $76,600 | $139,050 | 21,870 |
| Illinois | $105,250 | $83,000 | $140,410 | 9,800 |
| Connecticut | $104,360 | $82,110 | $127,150 | 4,060 |
| Massachusetts | $103,790 | $82,760 | $130,220 | 6,850 |
| Oregon | $103,510 | $79,440 | $133,950 | 3,210 |
| Arizona | $103,220 | $81,560 | $134,050 | 5,170 |
| Ohio | $103,050 | $79,070 | $126,060 | 10,280 |
| Georgia | $102,700 | $78,580 | $130,630 | 6,780 |
| Delaware | $102,050 | $79,930 | $136,350 | 1,260 |
| Colorado | $102,030 | $76,460 | $132,010 | 5,630 |
| Minnesota | $102,010 | $83,570 | $121,340 | 5,180 |
| Wisconsin | $101,840 | $80,740 | $124,640 | 5,580 |
| Hawaii | $101,700 | $78,630 | $123,280 | 950 |
| District of Columbia | $101,640 | $85,620 | $129,470 | 610 |
| Indiana | $101,560 | $76,960 | $125,390 | 6,130 |
| Virginia | $101,450 | $75,720 | $132,860 | 7,630 |
| Pennsylvania | $101,380 | $76,960 | $127,060 | 11,710 |
| South Carolina | $101,330 | $72,810 | $123,480 | 3,930 |
| Florida | $101,040 | $73,630 | $122,880 | 16,290 |
| Michigan | $100,900 | $79,600 | $123,980 | 8,630 |
| Kentucky | $100,710 | $73,900 | $126,920 | 3,390 |
| New York | $100,660 | $73,580 | $136,120 | 20,940 |
| Wyoming | $100,400 | $75,900 | $125,930 | 560 |
| Tennessee | $100,140 | $67,280 | $127,500 | 4,800 |
| Mississippi | $99,990 | $73,700 | $121,740 | 1,980 |
| North Carolina | $99,910 | $78,020 | $125,940 | 7,350 |
| Utah | $99,880 | $66,160 | $136,970 | 2,300 |
| New Hampshire | $99,850 | $76,180 | $122,560 | 1,960 |
| Maine | $99,720 | $78,020 | $121,030 | 1,860 |
| Rhode Island | $99,400 | $80,770 | $125,390 | 1,020 |
| Missouri | $99,310 | $76,110 | $124,530 | 4,900 |
| Arkansas | $99,010 | $73,050 | $127,210 | 2,680 |
| Idaho | $99,000 | $74,570 | $122,100 | 1,030 |
| Oklahoma | $98,590 | $68,330 | $128,000 | 2,560 |
| Louisiana | $98,530 | $60,150 | $127,640 | 3,280 |
| Kansas | $98,290 | $72,290 | $122,130 | 2,660 |
| Vermont | $97,970 | $75,040 | $115,860 | 760 |
| Iowa | $97,560 | $73,780 | $120,730 | 2,530 |
| Alabama | $97,290 | $74,770 | $133,710 | 3,040 |
| Nebraska | $97,090 | $77,540 | $120,190 | 2,140 |
| West Virginia | $96,600 | $73,130 | $126,380 | 1,310 |
| South Dakota | $92,660 | $77,890 | $107,870 | 1,060 |
| Montana | $91,450 | $78,490 | $115,540 | 1,180 |
| North Dakota | $85,330 | $75,290 | $113,600 | 830 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. 51 states and territories publish a median for this occupation. A blank cell means BLS suppressed that figure.
State medians are not adjusted for cost of living here, and you should not read them as though they were. California leads at $124,190 and North Dakota sits at $85,330, but a good deal of that gap is housing rather than spending power. Compare a state figure against local costs before treating it as a reason to move.
Compare Physical Therapist Pay With Other DHSc Degree Careers
Every occupation this site tracks, by median. The group column matters: a destination role is one the doctorate moves you into, and an origin role is work DHSc students were already doing before they enrolled, so its pay is not a return on the degree.
| Occupation | Median | Middle Half | Employed | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician Assistants | $135,880 | $120,670 to $163,980 | 162,150 | Origin |
| Medical and Health Services Managers | $123,860 | $94,700 to $166,100 | 597,080 | Destination |
| Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary | $107,310 | $75,690 to $210,370 | 221,270 | Destination |
| Education Administrators, Postsecondary | $104,590 | $80,870 to $144,370 | 180,470 | Destination |
| Physical Therapists | $102,760 | $86,160 to $121,160 | 267,330 | Origin |
| Occupational Therapists | $100,330 | $82,510 to $116,670 | 162,450 | Origin |
| Health Education Specialists | $64,070 | $50,620 to $87,130 | 65,690 | Destination |
Sources for Physical Therapist Salary Data
Pay figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics extract behind this site. Projections are not in that dataset and are cited to O*NET separately.
- O*NET OnLine: Physical Therapists O*NET OnLine, U.S. Department of Labor, median pay and the 2024 to 2034 employment projection for this occupation.
- FSBPT on the National Physical Therapy Examination Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, the licensure exam physical therapists sit.