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Where You Work Does Matter
The range of a physical therapist’s salary can go anything from $53 000 to over $100 000. The best paid physical therapists usually are found in metropolitan areas in physician’s offices and hospitals. This would be a good place to start looking for work or to set up your own practice.
Knowing in which area you will be working will help you to determine how much you will be earning as a physical therapist. Working in Metropolitan areas will earn you a higher salary than when you are helping out in the smaller towns. It is true that the services of a physical therapist may be needed more in a small town because not just everyone would want to work in a small town, but there are only so many patients to see before there are more therapists than patients.
In a metropolitan area, there are more people and thus there is an even greater need for more therapists than in small towns. As it becomes more difficult for students to find work when they have just graduated it becomes necessary to do some research first about where to work before you graduate so that by the time you have finished your course, you can move or so that you can transfer to a school in the area where you will be working after graduation to make the transition easier.
When you consider the amount of patients a small town physical therapist sees per month, you will realize that the income of the practice itself does not warrant for the amount of salaries to be paid out as they are in the metropolitan areas where many more patients are seen per month than a small town therapist may see in a year.
The Top Metropolitan Areas To Work In For Physical Therapists
According to the salaries that the therapists can earn it has been found that the following metropolitan areas offer the best salaries for physical therapists:
- Dallas Texas
- Baltimore MD
- Cleveland OH
- Chicago IL
- Phoenix AZ
- Newark NJ
- San Francisco area
- Atlanta GA
- Washington DC
- Boston MA
- Detroit MI
- Columbus OH
- Cincinnati OH
- Syracuse NY
- Albuquerque NM
- Fort Lauderdale FL
- Los Angeles CA
- Daytona Beach FL
- Los Angeles CA
- Austin TX
- Lehigh Valley Area PA
- Inland Empire CA
- Charlotte NC
- Orange County CA
- Birmingham AL
- Fort Meyers FL
The Salaries That Can Be Earned In Metropolitan Areas
Physical Therapy salaries in metropolitan areas are dependent on your level of qualification and your experience but on average you can earn the following salaries in the following areas:
Dallas Area
In Allen, Aubrey, Carrollton, Cedar Hill, Celina, Coppell, Dallas, Denton, Desoto, Fort Worth and Irving, the average salary expectancy of a physical therapist is around $72546.
Baltimore Area
In Randallstown, Annapolis, Crofton, Severna Park, Pasadena, Aberdeen, Odenton, Brooklyn, Ellicott City and Edgewood the average salary ranges at about $73 583 although the cost of living in these areas may be a bit higher than in the Dallas area.
Cleveland OH
Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Brunswick, Chippewa Lake, Cleveland, Geneva, Independence, Oberlin, Seville, Sheffield Lake and Willoughby offer salaries of around $72517 with a lower cost of living to look forward to which means the salary will go a longer way.
Chicago IL
In the Chicago area you will find Brookfield, Buffalo Grove, Carol Stream, Channahon, Chicago, Elgin, Elk Grove Village, Elmhurst, Woodstock, Worth and Zion which has a higher salary expectancy which is on average $77730. Although the salary may look more attractive, you would also have to take the higher cost of living into consideration when applying for work in this area. The unemployment rate of these areas may also play a part in whether you will be able to get a job here.
Phoenix AZ
Apache Junction, Casa Grande, chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Surprise and Tempe offers an average salary of $70131.
Newark NJ
In Allendale, Alpine, Bergenfield, Bloomingdale, Little Ferry, Lodi, Hawthorne, Paramus, Park Ridge, Passaic, Saddle Brook, Teaneck, Tenafly, Teterboro, Totowa and Woodcliff Lake gives an average salary of around the $73000 mark as well.
San Francisco Area
A higher earning potential of $88000 can be expected in the Alameda, Berkeley, Canyon, Castro Valley, Concord, Dublin, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Martinez, Oakland, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Berkeley and Walnut Creek.
Atlanta GA
In Acworth, Adairsville, Alpharetta, Atlanta, Auburn, Austell, Norcross, Avondale Estates, Ball Ground, Berkeley Lake, Duluth, Fayetteville, Good Hope, Grantville, Grayson, Palmetto, Athens and Riverdale will give you an earning potential of around $71000
Washington DC
This area may not attract a lot of physical therapists because of the high cost of living and the low earning potential. The rate of unemployment in these areas is quite low so you may have a better chance of employment in the areas of Alexandria, Bethesda, Clarksburg, Fairfax, Fort Myer, Fredericksburg, Haymarket, Langley Park, Lanham, mason neck, Mc Lean, Owings, Oxon Hill, Springfield, Paris, Reston, Riverdale, Riverton, and Waldorf. The average salary I this area is around $77602.
Boston MA
In the Boston area a physical therapist can expect to earn around $81000 the cost of living is a little higher than some of the other areas, but the high earning rate makes up for it in many ways.
Lehigh Valley And Detroit
In these areas, a physical therapist can earn around $76000 which is in the middle of the range of physical therapy salaries in metropolitan areas.
Columbus, New York, Fort Lauderdale and Charlotte
In these metropolitan areas, you can expect to earn about $71 000 for your physical therapy services.
Cincinnati
In this metropolitan area a physical therapist can earn around $70 000. This salary is still well above the average for any other medical profession and the cost of living in this area is not as high which will help stretch your dollars out even more.
Albuquerque, Daytona Beach, Austin, Birmingham And Fort Meyers
The average salary in these areas for a physical therapist may seem a bit lower in the mid- to high $60 000 mark, but the cost of living is much lower in these areas as well which compensates for the lower earnings.
These are some of the best areas to work in, but there are other gems in between that can boost your earning potential even more. Some physical therapists in the state of Texas earn over $100 000.
McAllan in Texas boasts physical therapists that earn around $120 000 which is nearly $50 000 more than other medical professions.
Where You Stay Can Make a Difference in Your Earnings
With the cost of living rising ever higher each year it is difficult to keep up with payments and when you are staying in a large city, it may be even worse with the cost of housing shooting up so high that a lot of consumers have had to sell their homes. The problem is, however, that the metropolitan areas, no matter how expensive, contain most of the employers and the highest salaries.
To make the situation work for you, should you wish to work in these areas, you can have a look at the area where you will be working and how much the accommodation close to your place of work will cost you per month. Living close to work can save on a lot of transport costs, but the salary and the cost of the accommodation would have to validate this choice.
On the other side of the situation, you can see where the affordable accommodation is in relation to your workplace and then how much your transportation will cost you to work and back. There is also the choice to make between using own transport or public transport and which would work out more cost effectively.
It doesn’t help if you have a high salary but you live in such a high cost area that you cannot afford the basics.
Getting Paid What You Are Worth
As indicated, the area in which you choose to work has a major impact on what your salary as a physical therapist. Living in a metropolitan area does not only mean that your salary is higher, but it also means that there is more potential for business. People in metropolitan areas live busy and active lives. These people have the stresses of their daily working and home lives and they are also trying to make ends meet. There are more people getting injured because of the lives they lead and thus there is more business for a physical therapist. The more patients the practice sees, the more they will be able to pay those who work there. For this reason, physical therapists are paid higher in metropolitan areas than in small towns.
The amount that a physical therapist can charge a patient has to still comply with the relevant legislation and should fall within the scope of the rest of the market. The fee that the physical therapists charge their patients can have an impact on the salaries that are paid as well.