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Pay · 31-2022

Physical Therapist Aides earn $35,240 a year at the midpoint

Across roughly 48,150 people in this work, the midpoint is $35,240 a year, with most starting near $30,410.

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$35,240median a year · United States
$16.94an hour $36,430average 48,150people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$30,41025th $35,240median $38,81075th
$25,36010th percentile $47,78090th percentile
$30,410a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$55,760best-paying state · Alaska
$22,460lowest-paying state · Louisiana
+58%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $55,760 in Alaska and $22,460 in Louisiana — a gap of $33,300 a year.

Physical therapist aide earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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Ranked 767 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 3% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 765 Animal Caretakers $35,360
  2. 766 Food Preparation Workers $35,320
  3. 767 Physical Therapist Aides $35,240
  4. 768 Waiters and waitresses $35,230
  5. 769 Parking Attendants $35,150

Physical therapist aide wages across the states

The 38 states where the most people do this work, of 50 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.87 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Colorado $41,970 $31,500 $31,500 — $52,290 360
Washington $39,500 $35,930 $35,930 — $58,100 760
California $38,330 $34,690 $34,690 — $60,200 7,330
Massachusetts $37,440 $35,070 $35,070 — $48,690 1,020
Ohio $37,220 $22,970 $22,970 — $46,050 760
Wisconsin $36,820 $28,080 $28,080 — $46,520 840
Illinois $36,650 $31,200 $31,200 — $48,360 680
Oregon $36,060 $31,430 $31,430 — $44,490 1,090
Connecticut $35,770 $34,010 $34,010 — $43,830 520
Pennsylvania $35,520 $24,180 $24,180 — $43,100 1,200
New York $35,380 $32,610 $32,610 — $51,460 4,950
Arizona $35,260 $31,510 $31,510 — $44,630 1,340
Florida $35,140 $30,620 $30,620 — $44,180 1,210
Indiana $35,100 $23,010 $23,010 — $73,430 860
Maryland $34,780 $31,200 $31,200 — $39,330 830
North Carolina $34,760 $28,920 $28,920 — $72,890 1,050
New Jersey $34,430 $32,220 $32,220 — $44,350 2,230
Delaware $34,060 $31,200 $31,200 — $42,750 300
Virginia $33,390 $25,960 $25,960 — $42,530 1,260
South Carolina $33,280 $22,830 $22,830 — $45,290 370
New Mexico $31,990 $29,090 $29,090 — $47,860 240
Nevada $31,970 $27,550 $27,550 — $40,090 900
Texas $31,590 $22,520 $22,520 — $46,710 5,710
Rhode Island $31,200 $31,200 $31,200 — $43,480 280
Georgia $30,550 $22,080 $22,080 — $38,680 1,200
Wyoming $30,470 $29,730 $29,730 — $37,080 240
Tennessee $30,320 $21,220 $21,220 — $42,830 710
Michigan $29,350 $27,070 $27,070 — $38,300 1,810
Missouri $29,250 $28,600 $28,600 — $39,140 750
Utah $29,150 $23,010 $23,010 — $36,220 1,130
Iowa $29,120 $21,840 $21,840 — $43,760 390
Idaho $28,660 $23,600 $23,600 — $40,680 540
Nebraska $28,080 $28,080 $28,080 — $41,590 670
Oklahoma $27,630 $21,550 $21,550 — $35,990 370
Mississippi $27,370 $23,450 $23,450 — $36,880 270
Alabama $27,290 $21,160 $21,160 — $33,770 750
Kansas $25,280 $21,880 $21,880 — $39,260 440
Louisiana $22,460 $19,490 $19,490 — $30,070 1,380

Examples

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Resumes for physical therapist aides

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  • Cleaned and organized work area and disinfected equipment after treatment.
  • Secured patients into or onto therapy equipment.
  • Instructed, motivated, safeguarded, or assisted patients practicing exercises or functional activities, under direction of medical staff.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Physical therapist aide pay rate, hourly and yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$35,235a year

Questions people ask most

What is a physical therapist aide’s yearly income?

A physical therapist aide makes a median of $35,240 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $30,410 and $38,810.

What is a physical therapist aide’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $16.94 an hour; the average is $36,430 a year.

What is the starting pay for a physical therapist aide?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $30,410 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $25,360.

Which state pays physical therapist aides the most?

Alaska, with a median of $55,760 a year.

How many people work as physical therapist aides?

About 48,150 in the United States — number 767 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays about the same

Median pay within $90 of what physical therapist aides earn — $35,240 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations