How Much Do Physical Therapists Make?

Physical therapists earn a median of $101,020 a year — about $49 an hour — according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2024). Half of all PTs earn more than that, half earn less, and the top 10% clear $130,870. Where you land depends far more on setting and ownership than on years of experience.

How much do physical therapists make a year?

Here are the figures worth knowing, each with the source and the date it was measured. Salary pages age badly, so the date matters as much as the number.

The year-over-year move from $99,710 to $101,020 is roughly 1.3% — slower than general wage growth over the same period. That flatness is the backdrop to everything below.

What type of PT makes the most money?

Setting drives more of the spread than specialty does. BLS publishes medians by industry, and home health and skilled nursing facilities sit at the top of the range, while outpatient offices and hospitals land nearer the middle. Travel and PRN contracts often quote a higher hourly figure because they carry no benefits, so compare total compensation before treating that as a raise.

The two levers that move a number the most are ownership and payer mix. A PT who owns a practice takes profit as well as salary. A PT whose clinic earns cash-based revenue alongside insurance has income that is not capped by a reimbursement rate.

Why does the same job pay so differently?

Because most of a clinician's income is set by a fee schedule they do not control. Medicare has trimmed its physical therapy fee schedule for five years running — the 2025 conversion factor fell about 2.8% (APTA). When each visit pays less, the only levers left are seeing more patients, working more hours, or building income that sits outside the payer relationship entirely.

The first two have a ceiling, and it is the same ceiling for everyone: there are only so many hours in a week and only so many bodies a clinician can put hands on.

How do PTs add income that isn't tied to a fee schedule?

The most direct route runs through something a PT does at the end of nearly every episode of care: telling a patient what to get. A home program comes with a list — a brace, a band, a roller, a support. Most patients guess, buy the wrong thing, or buy nothing at all.

A storefront turns that specification into income. The provider recommends, the brand ships the order, and the clinic earns on what it recommended. There is no stock to buy, no shelf space, and no reorder management, because the supplier fulfils each order directly. The storefront never touches protected health information.

PTs, OTs and chiropractors can sell products to patients when the recommendation is disclosed and clinical judgment stays in front. Getting that part right is its own subject — see how to recommend products the right way and which retail products a clinic should carry.

This is incremental revenue, and it should be described as such. It scales with a clinician's reputation rather than their hours, which is precisely the constraint the fee schedule imposes.

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