Physical Therapist Aides in Louisiana
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$19,818
after federal, FICA and Louisiana tax
Tax takes
$2,642
11.8% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$22,433
Louisiana costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Louisiana — 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
$22,460
Kept after tax
$19,818
Worth in national money
$22,433
State rank
50
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for physical therapist aides is on the low side in Louisiana. The middle earner gets $22,460. That is 50 of 50 states, and about 36.27% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 484 occupations Louisiana publishes, physical therapist aides lands at 480. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- Here is where Louisiana does better than its wage suggests. From a median of $22,460 you keep $19,818, and because things cost less here than the national average, that behaves like $22,433 would elsewhere. The average is higher, $24,960, because the best-paid pull it up.
- For physical therapist aides, Louisiana sits in the lower band at $22,460, ranking 50 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 36.27%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within Louisiana, this work ranks 480 of 484 occupations by median pay, in the bottom quartile. The within-state position is the more salient one for anyone weighing this job against alternatives available to them locally.
- After federal, FICA and Louisiana income tax, retained pay for physical therapist aides on $22,460 is $19,818. Deflating by the state's price level — below the national average — gives $22,433 in national-average terms. ⚠️ That figure is purchasing power, not a wage, and nobody is paid it; it is what the take-home buys. The mean of $24,960 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $19,490 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $22,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $30,070 |
| This salary | $22,460 |
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 Louisiana | $19,818 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $20,106 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,742 |
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 | $22,111 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,056 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Louisiana earn less than $22,460. The published range is $19,490 up to $30,070, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Louisiana's $19,818, worked from $22,460. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 480 of 484.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $22,433 uses one figure for the whole of Louisiana. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 484 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 480.
- Reported values are medians; for physical therapist aides in Louisiana the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $19,490 to $30,070. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- The Louisiana take-home of $19,818, on $22,460 for work ranking 480 of 484 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 480 of 484 in the state.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $22,433, worked from $22,460, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular Louisiana address, on work sitting at 480 of 484 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $24,960, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $19,490 at the tenth percentile, $30,070 at the ninetieth.
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 $22,433.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Louisiana's own levy, $19,818 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 50 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
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 Louisiana is $24,960. 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 is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($19,490 to $30,070) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Louisiana rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Louisiana'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 $22,433 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 $19,818 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Louisiana 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.