Salary

[jrock89]

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I am about to pursue a career in PT but I am having cold feet at the last minute and second thoughts. I am thinking about everything and had a question for all the PT's out there. How is your salary like? I am thinking about switching to pharmacy or PA now but I have some questions. Do you match the statistics online? I have looked through a bunch of online salary sources and the average PT can make between 40-70. That seems very low for someone that has extensive knowledge of the human body. I know friends that barely make it out of high school and get a job at a local bank as a teller or a personal banker after "x" years and make just as much money. I know money is not everything but it is a huge part. I have debts and bills to pay and would like to have my children live a financially stress free life unlike me. We go through just as much schooling as any other major health profession but get paid the least. Do you think this will change in the future? What does the DPT mean if it doesn't increase our payroll? What is the extra knowledge for? Just for bragging rights? I am just displeased with the current salary of PT's right now if the PT payroll is accurate with the websites I looked at (payscale, salary.com etc etc). Will we receive a lower salary with the new Obama care? I just need some info about PT payroll down south in the US. I love the PT lifestyle and work that they do but just 40,50,60 K doesnt cut it for me considering the time and moeny I am about to invest. Sorry for the rant 🙁

 

[Azimuthal]

Do a search on jblil and review his posts.

 

[okramango]

There have been some recent threads on these topics:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=931151
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=711571&page=2
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=939257
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=935439
These are just a few of them. Look around in this forum and you'll see all these issues discussed multiple times. It comes down to the reasons you chose PT in the first place, and you're personal decision whether or not it's worth it to you.

 

[jrock89]

Thanks for the other posts. I have read them but I still want to know why we are the lowest paid doctorate program? I see people getting paid around 54k on those forums and I have friends with no college education sticking with their jobs since high school making almost that amount. It is really sad...The PT life is awesome and rewarding, just which we could say the same for our paychecks.

 

[Fiveoboy11]

Thanks for the other posts. I have read them but I still want to know why we are the lowest paid doctorate program? I see people getting paid around 54k on those forums and I have friends with no college education sticking with their jobs since high school making almost that amount. It is really sad...The PT life is awesome and rewarding, just which we could say the same for our paychecks.

There are plenty of opportunities to easily make 70k/yr as a permanent full time employee, in any setting. If one considers contract, PRN, travel then your salary can go way up

As an employee of a travel company, you can NET 1300-2000/wk. Trust me I've done it.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p1542/ar02.html

Above is a link to the per diem rates for the US. A person needs to work for a travel company to get the full per diem rate (can't be self employed and claim as there's conflict of interest), but if you wanted to start own small business (i.e. (P)LLC), you can claim meals and incidentals as non taxable addition to your pay (about 60 or more dollars per day), vs 120+ non taxable per day if one works for a travel company. The per day rate is multiplied by 7 days/wk regardless of how many days per week you work.

For example, if you use the above website (scroll down to portion for non federal employees), and an extreme case, let's say Washington D.C. (the place where the traveling job is at). The per diem rate would be between 254 and 297/day (depending on time of year) x 7/wk = ~1780 to 2100/wk non taxable plus about 25/hr taxable x 40hrs/wk = about 2300-2800/wk net total.

As a conservative example, let's say you take a travel position with the lowest per diem rate. I think that's 77 + 46/day for lodging and incidentals or 123/day x 7/wk = 861/wk tax free plus about 25/hr x 40hrs/wk = about 1600+/wk NET. The catch for above scenarios is that you have to have a permanent residence that is 50 miles away from the travel job, and you have to have another temporary residence (i.e. rental or room rental) that would be used for the travel job.

As far as permanent jobs:

Salary is highly dependent upon experience, location, caseload and setting. From my experience salary in terms of setting: HHPT>Inpt rehab/SNF>acute>outpt ortho/neuro/peds. Maybe that is a bit off, but it is based on what I've seen. A company that schedules you more patients per day (i.e. 16-20) vs 8-12 will usually pay more. There are exceptions though, i.e. outpatient hospital ortho (usually very low patient caseload and pays well). So, if a person is open to location, patient load, and setting, he/she can make a good salary as a permanent employee.

Add to this the potential with part time or PRN jobs, i.e. on saturdays.

There are tons of opportunities, the keys are being frugal when in PT school and after you graduate.