Can Physical Therapists make 6 figures in 2023?

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By PT Wealth Journey

While in my second year of physical therapy school, one of my professors said that the majority of us will not be able to earn $90,000 until we’re at the end of our careers and we can forget about earning 6 figures unless we pick up extra hours, a second job or start a business. This was back in 2012 and it was a disappointing reality check considering how much a doctorate degree in physical therapy costs. How well did his predictions hold up? Can physical therapists make 6 figures?

Over 10 years later and salaries have increased! Though, you could argue that salaries have actually decreased or stayed stagnant due a inflation.

How Much Money Do Physical Therapists Make?

The best way to get an idea of how much physical therapists make is to look up the median income. Based on data from the bureau of labor statistics (BLS), most physical therapists across the United States are earning $91,000.

Wage estimates For Physical Therapists

Percentile10%25%50%
(Median)
75%90%
Hourly Wage$ 30.54$ 36.23$ 43.75$ 50.99$ 60.95
Annual Wage (2)$ 63,530$ 75,360$ 91,010$ 106,060$ 126,780
Source: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291123.htm

Even so, $90,000 is still out of reach for many physical therapists, especially if working in school systems or in outpatient facilities as profit margins shrink with declining insurance reimbursement rates. For those earning $100,000 or more, they are likely working in high cost of living areas, working in home health or travel therapists.

This leads me to my next point.

Factors that Influence physical therapy salaries

The reality is, like many professions, your salary will depend on a number of factors

1. Geographic location

Generally, states with higher costs of living such as New York, Nevada, and California will have higher salaries that range from $92,000 to $108,000. Of course, more rural areas may sometimes offer higher compensation depending on if there is enough demand.

2. Type of setting or employer

You may have a vision of where you want to work after graduation, but the typical pay ranges in certain settings may not align with your expectations. To ground your expectations, speak with your network of colleagues who are willing to share their compensation.

Schools, hospital based outpatient facilities and low volume private practices will pay the least, followed by inpatient acute therapy and high volume private practices, the highest paying settings are generally skilled rehab facilitates, home health care and travel therapy.

This would be by far the easiest way to fast forward your way for physical therapists to earn 6 figures.

3. Number of available work hours

Obviously the more hours you work, the more you earn. This is one of the biggest factors to determine if physical therapists can make 6 figures.

On average, lawyers work 50 hours per week. Based on data from the BLS, they earn a median salary of approximately $127,000.

What would happen if a therapist making a median salary of $91,000 worked an extra 10 hours a week earning $50/hour as a PRN therapist? They would bring home an extra $26,000 bringing their gross earning to $117,000!

That being said the opposite is true. If there is no one who wants your service, you have no work. During the peak of the covid-19 pandemic, I learned that PTs, while being essential, were not urgent. As a result, myself and many of my colleagues had their hours cut or were completely laid off forcing us to pivot.

4. Position or Title

Rehab managers and directors will typically earn more than their staff, but may also be putting in many hours off the clock. Those higher level positions may also come with bonuses that aren’t available to staff PTs.

Some employers will have clinical ladders as a means for promotion and growth opportunities within the company. However, it often comes with responsibilities such as helping to onboard staff, provide presentations and staff education, and other administrative tasks that may fall outside your interest. You will want to make sure your new responsibilities align with your career goals and lifestyle.

5. Years of experience

Sadly some employers may compensate you solely based on years of experience when we all know healthcare is still a fee for service industry. We all know insurance reimbursement is the same whether the therapist has 10 months of experience or 10 years of experience. In outpatient clinics, assuming comparable productivity and evaluation volume, new grads will likely earn the clinic more revenue if they take slightly longer to “fix” a patient than a more senior grad.

That being the case, if you aspire to become a high earning therapist, you need to stay away from places that cap your income purely based years of experience. It’s better for you to look for places that will pay market value for a high performing PT regardless of how many gray hairs you have on you head.

As I like to say, find places that value gray matter over gray hair.

Years of experience should be near irrelevant to your earnings. Your earnings should be better correlated with your performance and the revenue you drive into the clinic.

As an aspiring high earning therapist, find ways to maximizing your salary within the first 1-3 years of your career. Once you realize your income ceiling is met, you’ll find ways of making more money.

7. Specialty or advanced certifications

The primary reason physical therapists get certified in certain areas of practice like orthopedics, geriatrics, or women’s health, is because they are passionate about it and want to upgrade their skills. It sounds crazy, but advanced certifications does not guarantee higher pay. However, some employers may require it to advance to the next level on their clinical ladder along with agreeing to more responsibilities as discussed above.

It may also be a required credential if looking into working in academia, specialty clinics, or it can open doors to research projects. That being said, specializing has potential to indirectly increase your income, but it’s not the driving force to make more as a physical therapist. Any extra income is really the cherry on top.

Can physical therapists make 6 figures? It Depends

With some tweaking of the modifiable factors: Where you work, how often you work, and what you do at work, it is possible for PTs to earn a $100,000 or more.

In some settings such as outpatient and schools, it would be harder to reach this number due to lower profit margins. With that being the case, the quickest way to earn more would be to pick up many extra hours elsewhere.

SNFs, home health care and outpatient PT are all places I have done PRN work with while working full time. Doing so allowed me pay off my student loans relatively quickly and is helping me get closer towards my financial goals.

Now I’m saving more, investing more and working towards building multigeneration wealth.

If you want to check out how I plan on doing this, you’ll want to review my investment policy statement.

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