What is the Salary of a Physical Therapist?

Recovering from an injury or disease can be a long, slow and painful process. Even in our do-it-yourself age, the task of physical rehabilitation should not be left to amateurs. It's important to have a professional assist patients through their most arduous recoveries, ensuring that rehabilitation happens at a safe and healthy pace. It takes extensive training and education to become a certified physical therapist, and many physical therapists have a master's or Doctoral Degree in Physical Therapy. As with many careers requiring specific education and training, a physical therapist salary tends to be higher than some other careers where no special knowledge is required. However, the question "What is the salary of a physical therapist" is not easily answered; asking physical therapist salary questions in greater detail will yield more precise results.

Physical Therapist Salary Data

Which city offers the highest salary for physical therapy professionals? Are there special certifications that might increase a physical therapist salary? What is the starting salary of a physical therapist? What is the salary of a physical therapist like when working for a sports team? These common questions can all be answered with PayScale's physical therapist salary data. You can view the average salary for physical therapists by city, state, years of experience, and much more. Researching Physical Therapist Salary by City, you can see that New York and Houston currently offer the highest average salary for a physical therapist. Measuring the Salary of a Physical Therapist by State, on the other hand, shows that California offers the highest salary for physical therapy overall. Location may actually have less influence on a physical therapist salary than training; the Physical Therapist Salary by Certification chart shows that becoming a Certified Wound Specialist offers a significant increase in salary. For physical therapists who are just starting their careers, the Physical Therapist Salary by Experience chart will give you an idea of how the salary for physical therapy can change after five, 10 and even 20 years of experience on the job.

For further research into physical therapy careers, read the Salary Story interview, Starting Salary for Physical Therapy Assistants, over in the PayScale blogs section. You'll find out what it's really like to work in physical therapy from Steve Brown, a physical therapy assistant with 10 years of experience in the field. If you're a physical therapist looking to advance your career, check out the report on the Average Salary for Physical Therapy Clinical Director.