PT Guide
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Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) Salary
If you want to start practicing physical therapy assistant as a professional you must know that this job has a salary on average of $70,000 per year along with several benefits. The explanation behind this generous salary lies in the fact that it is intended for this job to increase in popularity along with these services that are in growing demand. For those who are on entry-level position, they can expect a salary of $55,000 which is also a good amount given the education that one can get before practicing.
As with many other jobs, the PTA salary can vary in accordance with other factors such as the place of practice, the facility that has hired you, the level of experience, and the credentials that one can present to the facility that hires him/her. For a better compensation, these salaries can be even bigger for the foreign-trained therapists as the local ones are not enough for the demands that seem to grow even more.
The benefits mentioned above might include: medical, life, disability insurance along with dental insurance; stock purchase plan designed for employees, paid vacations and others according to the location (for those trained abroad – coverage for airfare costs, work visas, etc.).
With all these incentives, it would be merely up to you to decide on the location since every state will compensate in its own manner. Apart from this, you should take into account as well the costs involved in your daily living and see which if the states or country can offer you the best conditions.
The salary will differ also with the employer, such as it is for instance with therapists hired by universities where one can get around $30/working hour, whereas a self-employed one would reach a $48/hour. Other facilities (private clinics, non-profit institutions, hospitals) would pay between $30 and $40 per hour.
Another factor that influences the physical therapy assistant salary is related to the qualification and your own experience that you bring in the specific institution. Therapists with certified specialty who work for so long in the field will have a better salary, as you might have imagined already.
Therapists who have treated many cases and types of patients might get better wages as they would bring in their high level of expertise for the specific facility. As an example: being specialized in Wound Care having only 1 to 4 years of experience will get you approx. $35 per hour, whereas an entry-level therapist who has got less than 1 year experience would get paid $25 per working hour.
This is why you should take into account this factor and determine the wages in accordance to your own expertise. The early stages of a physical therapist assistant career should prepare him or her into deciding towards a specialty, if this is what they are looking for. It is good to notice that being ‘equipped’ with a specialty can make you stand out from the crowd and get a better job position with a more exciting salary.