Physical Therapist Assistant Salaries by State (BLS May 2025 Data)

A physical therapist assistant in California earns, on average, about $31,000 a year more than one in South Dakota for the same license. This guide ranks every state and the District of Columbia by what physical therapist assistants (PTAs) actually earn, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, the newest state-level wage data the government publishes. Every figure is a BLS estimate for the physical therapist assistant occupation; nothing here is self-reported or blended from salary sites.

National estimates for physical therapist assistants (May 2025)

The BLS counts 112,430 physical therapist assistants employed in the United States. The mean annual wage is $68,730 ($33.04 an hour) and the median is $68,380 ($32.88 an hour). Half of PTAs earn between $59,820 and $78,680; the top 10% earn more than $89,510, and the bottom 10% less than $47,750.

For scale, the BLS median for physical therapists, the clinicians PTAs work under, was $102,760 in the same survey; see physical therapist salary by state. A PTA earns roughly two thirds of a physical therapist's pay with a two-year associate degree instead of a doctorate.

Which states pay physical therapist assistants the most?

California pays physical therapist assistants the most, with a mean annual wage of $83,080: $14,350 above the national mean. Alaska, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Texas round out the top five, and every state in the top ten averages more than $72,000 a year. The ten highest-paying states:

1. California: $83,080 a year ($39.94 an hour)
2. Alaska: $77,670 a year ($37.34 an hour)
3. New Jersey: $77,020 a year ($37.03 an hour)
4. Massachusetts: $76,350 a year ($36.71 an hour)
5. Texas: $75,060 a year ($36.09 an hour)
6. Connecticut: $73,730 a year ($35.45 an hour)
7. Maryland: $73,000 a year ($35.09 an hour)
8. Nevada: $72,960 a year ($35.08 an hour)
9. Virginia: $72,710 a year ($34.96 an hour)
10. New Hampshire: $72,140 a year ($34.68 an hour)

Which states pay physical therapist assistants the least?

At the other end, South Dakota has the lowest mean PTA wage at $52,170, $16,560 below the national mean and below the national 25th percentile, though still above the 10th. The five lowest-paying states:

1. South Dakota: $52,170 a year ($25.08 an hour)
2. Oklahoma: $57,990 a year ($27.88 an hour)
3. Idaho: $60,200 a year ($28.94 an hour)
4. Iowa: $60,220 a year ($28.95 an hour)
5. Michigan: $60,260 a year ($28.97 an hour)

These are means, not offers. A PTA with ten years in home health in South Dakota can out-earn a new graduate in an outpatient clinic in California, and the cost of housing in the highest-paying states eats into the gap (more on that below).

Physical therapist assistant salaries in all 50 states (and D.C.)

Ranked by mean annual wage. "Median" is the annual wage at the midpoint of the state's PTAs, "PTAs employed" is the BLS employment estimate for the state, and "per 1,000 jobs" is how many of every thousand jobs in the state are PTA jobs, a measure of how much of the state's workforce the occupation is.

15 of the 51 jurisdictions pay above the national mean of $68,730; the rest sit below it, which is what a mean weighted by California's and Texas's large workforces looks like. In Colorado, Ohio, District of Columbia and Wyoming the median sits $2,270 or more below the mean, so a few high earners pull the average up and a typical PTA there earns somewhat less than the headline figure. In Massachusetts, Texas, Connecticut and Maryland the opposite holds: the median is $2,150 or more above the mean, so pay is clustered near the top of the state's range.

Where the physical therapist assistant jobs are

Pay and headcount only partly line up. The six states with the most physical therapist assistants:

• Texas: 10,510 PTAs, mean $75,060 (ranked #5 on pay)
• Florida: 9,870 PTAs, mean $71,110 (ranked #12 on pay)
• California: 9,400 PTAs, mean $83,080 (ranked #1 on pay)
• Ohio: 7,040 PTAs, mean $67,260 (ranked #22 on pay)
• Illinois: 4,890 PTAs, mean $65,810 (ranked #27 on pay)
• Michigan: 4,520 PTAs, mean $60,260 (ranked #47 on pay)

Those six states employ about 46,000 physical therapist assistants, 41% of the country's total. Relative to the size of its workforce, the occupation is most common in Oklahoma (1.39 per 1,000 jobs), West Virginia (1.39 per 1,000 jobs), Kentucky (1.29 per 1,000 jobs), Alabama (1.28 per 1,000 jobs) and Ohio (1.27 per 1,000 jobs), all of which pay below the national mean: the states with the most PTAs per worker are not the ones that pay them most. Browse the openings on our board for physical therapist assistant jobs in Texas, Florida, California and Ohio, or every PTA job on the board.

Top-paying settings for physical therapist assistants

Setting matters as much as geography. National mean annual wages for physical therapist assistants by industry, May 2025:

Therapy offices, the private outpatient practices where more than two in five PTAs work, are the largest employer by far and pay the least of the major settings. Home health agencies pay about $17,000 more a year on average and skilled nursing facilities about $14,000 more; between them they employ roughly one PTA in four. Hospitals sit in the middle. The spread between a home health caseload and a clinic schedule is wider than the spread between most neighbouring states, so a PTA who wants to raise their pay without moving usually changes setting first.

Job outlook for physical therapist assistants

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 163,200 physical therapist assistant and aide jobs in 2025 and projects employment of physical therapist assistants to grow 23% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 26,200 jobs (aides grow 4%). Across assistants and aides together the BLS projects about 24,900 openings a year over the decade, counting replacements for workers who retire or change occupations. Demand comes from an ageing population that needs more rehabilitation, and from practices that lean on PTAs to deliver treatment plans under a physical therapist's supervision. The handbook's May 2025 median for PTAs is $68,380, against $35,240 for aides, which is the pay difference the associate degree and the license buy.

Licensure and the PT Compact

Every state requires physical therapist assistants to be licensed or certified: an associate degree from an accredited PTA program and a passing score on the national examination for PTAs, plus whatever the state board adds (a jurisprudence exam, a background check, continuing education at renewal). The Physical Therapy Licensure Compact, which covers physical therapist assistants as well as physical therapists, lets a licensee in a member state buy a compact privilege to work in any other member state without applying for a new license. As of October 2026 the PT Compact Commission lists 37 states plus the District of Columbia as actively issuing and accepting compact privileges; Maine, Michigan and Rhode Island have enacted it but are not yet issuing or accepting privileges; Illinois and Massachusetts have legislation introduced but not enacted; and California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Wyoming have not introduced it, so a move into those states means a full application by endorsement. Two of the states on that last list, California and Florida, employ 19,270 PTAs between them, which is why PTAs headed there should start the state application before they start the job search.

What the numbers don't tell you

• Cost of living. BLS wages are gross pay, not adjusted for housing or taxes. California, Alaska, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Texas lead the pay table and several of them are among the most expensive places to live. Compare what is left after rent or a mortgage, not the headline figure: the physical therapy pay calculator adjusts a salary for a city's rents and the state's income tax.
• Setting and schedule. The industry table above is national; the same spread between a home health agency and a private outpatient practice exists inside every state, and per-visit pay, weekend coverage, mileage and productivity bonuses sit inside these averages. A home health or skilled nursing PTA in a mid-ranked state can land well above the state mean.
• Experience. The 10th-to-90th percentile spread at the national level is $47,750 to $89,510. Where you fall in that range depends more on years in the role, setting and whether you carry a specialty caseload than on the state line.
• Travel and contract work. Staffing and agency employers average $63,810 in the survey, but a travel PTA contract is quoted as a weekly package with stipends on top of the taxed wage; see how travel stipends work, which applies to therapy contracts in the same way.
• The wider field. Physical therapy is one of the fastest-growing healthcare occupations in the BLS projections, and the same state-by-state pattern holds for the clinicians PTAs work with: see physical therapist salary by state and the highest-paying states for nurses.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data tool, Physical Therapist Assistants (31-2021), May 2025 state and national industry estimates, read 26 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national, state and industry tables, Physical Therapist Assistants (31-2021), read 26 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Physical Therapist Assistants and Aides, 2025 pay and 2025-35 projections, read 26 October 2026.
• Physical Therapy Compact Commission, PT Compact map of member states, current status, read 26 October 2026.