Does PT Have Flexiblity To Work Less Later In Their Career?

[Solis]

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Hi,

Edit: I realize some of you are getting the impression I want to ask if PT can work less and make MORE money. I am not asking that. I am asking, can PT work less hours in their career and still maintain relatively the same wage per hour? For example if a PT already making $90,000 a year working 40 hours a week, are there any opportunity to work 32 hours a week for $72,000 a year?

(I realize I rambled... so skip to the bottom for my questions if you don't want to read! 😀)

I'm a prospective student really interested in the PT field.

I really want opinions on what some of you think about this; does PT have the flexibility to work less than the standard 40hour week and still make decent money (at least close to ~50-60k per year gross) as they go further into their career?

I'm talking about like after 6-10 years of experience, or even more.

Obviously most PT will need to start off and follow a Mon-Fri, 8-5pm, 40 hours a week job. But eventually I would want to do less than the Mon-Fri 8-5 life style and still make enough money to get by. I don't live a flashy lifestyle and am a notorious penny pincher bargain hunter. I know for a fact I can get by very comfortably off 50-60k a year. So if I have the ABILITY (if I wanted to take up on it) to work less and still hit that income quota as I advance in my career, I think that's a huge draw for me. Would PT have this opportunity?

I sort of see the opposite trend for most other careers; My mother works in finance and as she advanced in her career, she had LESS flexibility to work less hours while maintaining a decent salary (actually there was no flexibility at all... unless she wanted to be a temp and work for much less per hour than previously). Becoming manager made her more money but also made her work even more hours than she did. Life is too short to work for money all the time...

The reason I thought PT could get this option later in their career is that the nature of work seems very client oriented, and each client are independent of others. So it seems reasonable if you chose to work less, you are still just as effective at your job. In fields like finance/accounting/IT, you work is more continuous and require you to be there for the full 40hour week to be fully effective. The less effective you are, the less money you are paid. For PT, I am assuming that you can just take on less client (right?) and since you are still just as effective to each client, I would imagine you can still command good wage per hour.

Also the ability to maybe one day to just own your practice is another incentive as well. Then not only will you have the ultimate say in flexibility by controlling the volume of client (hence time worked), you also don't have to work for the man (sometimes you get good bosses, but who doesn't want to eventually just be their own boss?).

The one other career in my head that has this "work less and still make enough money" ability is IT. I know there are many opportunities for tech savy people to do freelancer projects, consulting gigs that last for only months at a time, or telecommute. My issue with this career is that I think a PT career is VERY much more rewarding, and I would be way more focused/motivated as a PT. I'm the type of person that works VERY hard when I know I'm taking care of another person. I would study that much harder working toward a PT than trying to become some computer guru. I'm much more concerned about fixing someone's physical problems than problem with business enterprise software.

Anyway I rambled.... I just really meant to ask for your opinion on these subjects:

1. As PT advance in their career, are there much opportunities for them to work less than the 40hour week for less money?
2. Is it possible to still maintain a decent salary if yes to #1? (i.e. Pay per hour still decent? Would I still be able to gross 50-60k a year working less than 40hr weeks?)
3. How is the opportunity to eventually be more independent such as having your own practice? (or are there other independent opportunities?)

Please feel free to share your experience, perspective, and criticism!

Thanks,


-Hopeful student

 

[markelmarcel]

I'm actually going to comment on your work less/get good money IT comment. My SO is in IT, and he is in consulting and he definitely does NOT work less to get more money. He is working more (at times) than he did in his previous jobs (that were not in consulting). Yes, there are times when he can work from home, take a day off, only work 8-5, but then there are sometimes (when projects come up) where he is working 60+ hours a week, plus all weekend long (people get angry when their computer systems aren't working, and it's your job to fix it before they get back to work on Monday).

So as far as that goes, you may want to do a little more research.

I'm interested to see what the experienced PT people have to say about your main question, I'm just a student so I'm not all that certain of the answers.

 

[noyceguy]

There is no shortcut to $60,000 a year. You will have to earn every single penny of it, just like everyone else who makes that much. Expect to work full-time or more if you expect to have a career. If you are looking for a job where you can coast, look elsewhere.

 

[Solis]

There is no shortcut to $60,000 a year. You will have to earn every single penny of it, just like everyone else who makes that much. Expect to work full-time or more if you expect to have a career. If you are looking for a job where you can coast, look elsewhere.

I don't think you came across my question correctly, and maybe my subject title is misleading. I mean can PT work less later in their career, in exchange for making LESS money. Willing to earn less money and in return work less is an even exchange if they're relatively proportional. I'm just wondering if PT have the ability to make that exchange, because in some professions when someone wants to work less, they have to give up a disproportionally large amount of income (ie. working 20% less but giving up 40% income).

If I want to earn 20% less money by working 20% less time, that does not mean I want to coast and not have a career. I just want to know if PT gets an opportunity to work less later in their career while still getting paid about the same wage per hour.

There is no shortcut to earning $60,000, nor is there a shortcut to earning $80,000 a year. If you make $80,000 year with a 40 hour week and want to work 20% less time (32 hours a week) , assuming if you can get paid the same rate, you make $64,000. I'm working just as hard for my money in either case... No one is coasting or not wanting to work for their money here. My mother is an example of this, but because of the nature of her work, she don't have an opportunity for this exchange. She either has to work 100% of the time for 100% of that money or nothing in her current job. There are other jobs out there that would let her work 20% less, but she would have to give up maybe 40% of income or more (because of her nature of work, if she's there 20% less the time, she is MUCH less valuable).



My question is, does PT eventually get the opportunity to work less hours and still get paid relatively the same wage per hour?

I'm actually going to comment on your work less/get good money IT comment. My SO is in IT, and he is in consulting and he definitely does NOT work less to get more money. He is working more (at times) than he did in his previous jobs (that were not in consulting). Yes, there are times when he can work from home, take a day off, only work 8-5, but then there are sometimes (when projects come up) where he is working 60+ hours a week, plus all weekend long (people get angry when their computer systems aren't working, and it's your job to fix it before they get back to work on Monday).

So as far as that goes, you may want to do a little more research.

I'm interested to see what the experienced PT people have to say about your main question, I'm just a student so I'm not all that certain of the answers.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Again, I never said or meant to imply somehow PT can work less and get MORE money. The concept is, work less and get LESS money... with a key emphasis on maintaining relatively the same wage per hour.

Regarding the IT thing, maybe should specific when I say IT I didn't just mean IT as in fixing computers/maintain network. I meant IT as in anything computer information/ business systems related. I could imagine if you're consulting for straight IT support, they need you around 40hours a week. My best friend's parent whom works for a consulting company that advices business on website development (requirements, integration, implantation, delivery, etc.) and it's far from a 9-5 thing. When they have projects, sure its like a 40-60 hour thing. But when there's no project or if its a slow project, it's flexible where he can come in for less time and earn less money if he wanted. it. His wife is also a computer scientist and she consults for government contractors where she's only needed 2-3 days a week. She's always on different assignments where they only want her for 3-4 days. Both of them worked the 40 hour grind early in their career, paid their dues and are now deciding they rather work less and spend more time with their kid.


I understand some of you thinks $60,000 is a hard income to obtain without working 40 hours a week. But there are many careers out there where you will make 90k and over six figures as you get experience and advance in your career. I didn't thinks it's that strange of a concept to want to just work less, give up some money, and still maintain a comfortable income level when you get to that point in your career... the question is, is PT one of those career?

 

[noyceguy]

I guess you could do PT part-time.

 

[Solis]

Right, but I was curious if part-time PT (PT PT? lol) can make about the same wage per hour as full time.

For accountants, doing anything part time will usually earn them much less wage per hour as their full time counter-parts.

 

[DPTinFL]

Yes, you can work part time as a PT without sacrificing per hr pay. For example in FL you can work per diem part-time for ~ $50/hr at nursing facilities (most work available), $30-40 at outpatient facilities (harder to find) or $50-70 for home health (take as many patients as you like, not hard to find work). However benefits are not provided. Hope this helps.

 

[markelmarcel]

Didn't mean to sound like I was attacking you on the "do your research" -- I actually meant about IT. And yes, my SO does custom design/coding/implementation for companies. He actually works for a parent company and then gets contracts through there; so he doesn't do straight up contract-to-contract work; whether he would have a job or not, he would get paid, but sometimes the hours suck!

 

[jesspt]

Hi,

Edit: I realize some of you are getting the impression I want to ask if PT can work less and make MORE money. I am not asking that. I am asking, can PT work less hours in their career and still maintain relatively the same wage per hour? For example if a PT already making $90,000 a year working 40 hours a week, are there any opportunity to work 32 hours a week for $72,000 a year?

(I realize I rambled... so skip to the bottom for my questions if you don't want to read! 😀)

I'm a prospective student really interested in the PT field.

I really want opinions on what some of you think about this; does PT have the flexibility to work less than the standard 40hour week and still make decent money (at least close to ~50-60k per year gross) as they go further into their career?

I'm talking about like after 6-10 years of experience, or even more.

Obviously most PT will need to start off and follow a Mon-Fri, 8-5pm, 40 hours a week job. But eventually I would want to do less than the Mon-Fri 8-5 life style and still make enough money to get by. I don't live a flashy lifestyle and am a notorious penny pincher bargain hunter. I know for a fact I can get by very comfortably off 50-60k a year. So if I have the ABILITY (if I wanted to take up on it) to work less and still hit that income quota as I advance in my career, I think that's a huge draw for me. Would PT have this opportunity?

I sort of see the opposite trend for most other careers; My mother works in finance and as she advanced in her career, she had LESS flexibility to work less hours while maintaining a decent salary (actually there was no flexibility at all... unless she wanted to be a temp and work for much less per hour than previously). Becoming manager made her more money but also made her work even more hours than she did. Life is too short to work for money all the time...

The reason I thought PT could get this option later in their career is that the nature of work seems very client oriented, and each client are independent of others. So it seems reasonable if you chose to work less, you are still just as effective at your job. In fields like finance/accounting/IT, you work is more continuous and require you to be there for the full 40hour week to be fully effective. The less effective you are, the less money you are paid. For PT, I am assuming that you can just take on less client (right?) and since you are still just as effective to each client, I would imagine you can still command good wage per hour.

Also the ability to maybe one day to just own your practice is another incentive as well. Then not only will you have the ultimate say in flexibility by controlling the volume of client (hence time worked), you also don't have to work for the man (sometimes you get good bosses, but who doesn't want to eventually just be their own boss?).

The one other career in my head that has this "work less and still make enough money" ability is IT. I know there are many opportunities for tech savy people to do freelancer projects, consulting gigs that last for only months at a time, or telecommute. My issue with this career is that I think a PT career is VERY much more rewarding, and I would be way more focused/motivated as a PT. I'm the type of person that works VERY hard when I know I'm taking care of another person. I would study that much harder working toward a PT than trying to become some computer guru. I'm much more concerned about fixing someone's physical problems than problem with business enterprise software.

Anyway I rambled.... I just really meant to ask for your opinion on these subjects:

1. As PT advance in their career, are there much opportunities for them to work less than the 40hour week for less money? - Yes. Many PTs do this in various settings, with home health probably being the most common, followed by skilled nursing facilities. In my experience it is not as common in outpatient ortho, but still quite feasible.
2. Is it possible to still maintain a decent salary if yes to #1? (i.e. Pay per hour still decent? Would I still be able to gross 50-60k a year working less than 40hr weeks?) In home health, working three days a week, I would think this would be entirely possible.
3. How is the opportunity to eventually be more independent such as having your own practice? (or are there other independent opportunities?) If you are going to hang your own shingle, don't count on working less - you'll be working quite a bit more than 40 hours. You've got to consider the additional overhead you'll have. This option is highly unlikely

Please feel free to share your experience, perspective, and criticism!

Thanks,


-Hopeful student

See my answers in green above...