Physical Therapist Salary

Physical Therapist Salary

The salary of a physical therapist will greatly depend on their experience, education and specializations. Typically those with an specialized therapist education get paid higher initial wages, and also make more money when they get a raise.
When we are looking at all of these different salary ranges for a physical therapist, keep in mind that they are indeed just medians taken from studies done.  It does not mean that these are the numbers you will start off at, or even the numbers that you will Out at.  Depending on where you live, it will have a huge impact on how much you actually get paid in your salary to be a physical therapist.  Many people might even think that it is good to just move to a place where they will earn more for the same job.

Median Salary for Physical Therapist

Physical therapist in the USA, can expect there are roughly $75,000 per year.  Now that is a median number, meaning you could find many lower and higher than this number.  This number is taken from the certified compensation professional analysis survey.  A physical therapist is an extremely important job, being that they help people out in rehabilitating their life, and get back to their old selves.  A physical therapist can earn upwards to $100,000 a year, depending on their experience and skills.  Many physical therapist will earn more than $100,000 a year, because they are specialize in a certain aspect of physical therapy, that happens to be in demand.
If you are indeed planning on being a  physical therapist, that you would be certainly smart to decide in a specialization as well.  It can mean the difference between $1 million over your entire lifetime.

Physical Therapist Responsibilities

So what does a physical therapist actually do? A physical therapist is somebody who is skilled in rehabilitating injuries or diseases and athletes, and regular people.  Anybody who suffers injury, especially serious one, may need rehabilitation in order to get the joints and body parts working in full effect again.  A physical therapist knows exactly how to work a body to get this done in the fastest amount of time.  A physical therapist often has an aid or an assisted, or both helping him or her at all times.  It is indeed a highly stressful job for some people, depending on the patient load and the type of patients that you get.  It could also be a highly emotional job, especially if you get attached to your patients, or see people going through extremely rough times trying to rehabilitate their lives and bodies.

PT Salary Progression

As you can see, being a physical therapist can be extremely lucrative position because you start roughly at around $60-$75,000 per year, and can easily get all the way up to $100,000 a year or more with both experience and specialization.  Do not ever stop continuing your education, if you are planning on being a physical therapist, because the more specialized your knowledge, the higher salary will be.