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Role hub · Physical Therapists

Physical Therapist: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Oct 24, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of physical therapists earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$102,760
Hourly
$49.40
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Physical Therapists assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and improve or correct disabling conditions resulting from disease or injury. The median pay is $102,760 a year ($49.40 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a doctoral degree (47% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$102,760
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
267,330
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 5 of 5
extensive preparation
Most common education
Doctoral Degree
47% of workers
Explore the role

Every page for Physical Therapists

SalaryPhysical Therapist salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomePhysical Therapist how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumePhysical Therapist resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Interview questionsPhysical Therapist interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Career changePhysical Therapist career change

Where these skills transfer, with skill match and pay change.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What physical therapists do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
  2. Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
  3. Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
  4. Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
  5. Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
  6. Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
  7. Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
  8. Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Social PerceptivenesscoreService OrientationcoreReading ComprehensioncoreActive ListeningSpeakingCritical ThinkingWritingMonitoringJudgment and Decision Making

Knowledge areas: Customer and Personal Service, Therapy and Counseling, Medicine and Dentistry, Psychology, Education and Training, English Language.

Tools and technology

Software physical therapists use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • MEDITECH softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • eClinicalWorks EHR softwareMedical softwareHot technology
  • Advantage Software Physical Therapy AdvantageMedical software
  • Biometrics video game softwareAction games
  • Cedaron Dexter Evaluation & Impairment RatingAnalytical or scientific software
  • Clinicient InsightMedical software
  • Hands On Technology TheraWriter.PTMedical software
  • Medical condition coding softwareMedical software
  • Medical procedure coding softwareMedical software
  • Patient charting softwareMedical software
  • Prognosis Innovation Healthcare ChartAccessMedical software
  • Recordkeeping softwareMedical software

Also called: Acute Care PT (Acute Care Physical Therapist), Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Home Care Physical Therapist (Home Care PT), Inpatient Physical Therapist (Inpatient PT), Outpatient Physical Therapist (Outpatient PT), Pediatric Physical Therapist (Pediatric PT).

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).