Physical Therapist Aides in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$25,212
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$4,238
14.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$29,144
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$29,450
Kept after tax
$25,212
Worth in national money
$29,144
State rank
39
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Arkansas pays physical therapist aides a middle wage of $29,450, 39 of 50 states and about 16.43% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Arkansas this is lower-paid work. Of 489 occupations the state publishes figures for, physical therapist aides ranks 460. That is the bottom quarter locally, whatever the national comparison says.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $29,450 you keep $25,212 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $29,144 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $34,290, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arkansas's $29,450 median for physical therapist aides places it 39 of 50 states, about 16.43% below national. Because both the tax and price adjustments tend to favor lower-nominal states, this ranking is the least stable of the three reported here.
- Against every occupation Arkansas reports, physical therapist aides ranks 460 of 489, in the lowest quartile of the state's distribution. That position is set by the local labor market and is independent of how the state compares nationally for this work.
- Retained pay in Arkansas is $25,212 after the full tax stack, from $29,450. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $29,144 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $34,290 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
Choose your filing status and local taxes, compare pay, and keep a shortlist.Compare wage and personal-pay outcomes by state, with selected resident local taxes and saved career choices.
Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $24,810 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $29,450 |
| Top tenth earn over | $47,650 |
| This salary | $29,450 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Arkansas | $25,212 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $25,843 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,550 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $28,665 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,084 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Arkansas earn less than $29,450. The published range is $24,810 up to $47,650, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Arkansas the take-home figure of $25,212, from $29,450, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 460 of 489 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $29,144, the adjusted value of that $29,450 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arkansas. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 460 of 489 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for physical therapist aides in Arkansas the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $24,810 to $47,650. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Arkansas is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $25,212 from $29,450. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 460 of 489 locally.
- This $29,144 adjusted figure, worked from $29,450, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 460 of 489 in the state. The occupation ranks 460 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $34,290 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $24,810 at the bottom tenth to $47,650 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $29,144.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Arkansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $25,212 of this wage survives to your account.
Why is this job missing from some states?
Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 50 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Arkansas is $34,290. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($24,810) and the ninetieth ($47,650) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $29,144 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $25,212 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 50 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.