Physical Thereapist Salary

A physical therapist is a licensed professional who works with people who have physical disabilities because of an accident or a lingering illness. His job is to create a treatment plan that will work on the patient’s physical impairment and bring him back or as close to his normal moving state as is possible. He oversees a patient’s physical rehabilitation by prescribing specific exercises that will work on his muscles, as well as on improving his posture, strength, balance and overall coordination.

To practice as a physical therapist, an individual has to have majored in physical therapy. There are some medical institutions that require their physical therapists to have a master’s and a doctoral degree. Moreover, he has to have passed a state-licensing exam given for the purpose of being able to practice the profession. There are many states that also require physical therapists to enroll in regular continuing education programs and present proof that they keep abreast of developments in the field in order to maintain or renew their licenses.

For a number of reasons, there is a great demand for the services of physical therapists. There is a perceived growth in the number of people who suffer disabilities and whose bodily functions are limited by different illnesses. There is also a growth in the elderly population. Because of these reasons, the physical thereapist salary is one of the highest salaries in the labor force these days. It continues to be competitive as the need for their services increases.

There are discrepancies in a physical thereapist salary depending on what kind of employment he decides to take. There are those who go into management and consultation services. Many experts say that this is the area where physical therapists are paid the highest. There are those who offer home services to their clients and can therefore command their own rate. These physical therapists are also among the best paid in the profession. Still, there are others who get employed by hospitals, other medical care institutions and nursing care services. While the salary of these workers are not as high as those in the first two physical therapist categories, they nevertheless get good pay. Perhaps the lowest paid among physical therapists are those who choose to become health practitioners’ assistants but their annual salary still beats those of other professions.

Despite this differences in salaries, the website salary.com pegs a typical physical thereapist salary in the United States at 74,713 dollars as of March 2011. It is still expected to go up in the years to come because it is one of those jobs that never go out of style and the demand for it continues to grow.

The future looks good for physical therapists. The demand for their services has not been overtaken by the supply of new physical therapists and because of this, a physical therapist who has completed all the requirements for him to practice his profession can expect to be well-compensated. The more skills he adds to his qualifications, as for example, learning new technologies in the field and attending relevant continuing education classes, the higher he can expect to earn.