Physical Therapist Aides in Mississippi
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$23,146
after federal, FICA and Mississippi tax
Tax takes
$4,224
15.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$26,516
Mississippi costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Mississippi — 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
$27,370
Kept after tax
$23,146
Worth in national money
$26,516
State rank
47
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- The nominal figure here is modest. Mississippi pays physical therapist aides a middle wage of $27,370, 47 of 50 states and about 22.33% below the national middle. Hold that thought until the adjusted numbers.
- Within Mississippi this is lower-paid work. Of 486 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 $27,370 you keep $23,146 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $26,516 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $29,710, since top earners drag the number up.
- Mississippi's $27,370 median for physical therapist aides places it 47 of 50 states, about 22.33% 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 Mississippi reports, physical therapist aides ranks 460 of 486, 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 Mississippi is $23,146 after the full tax stack, from $27,370. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $26,516 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $29,710 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $23,450 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $27,370 |
| Top tenth earn over | $36,880 |
| This salary | $27,370 |
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 Mississippi | $23,146 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $24,149 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,665 |
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 | $26,152 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,985 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $27,370 as a midpoint for Mississippi, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $23,450 and the ninetieth is $36,880 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $23,146 take-home in Mississippi comes from $27,370. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 460 of 486.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $26,516 uses one figure for the whole of Mississippi. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 486 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 460.
- The Mississippi median of $27,370 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $23,450 to $36,880. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $23,146, from $27,370, assumes a single Mississippi filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 460 of 486 locally, and the state ranks 47 of 50 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $26,516, worked from $27,370, 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 Mississippi address, on work sitting at 460 of 486 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 $29,710, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $23,450 at the bottom tenth to $36,880 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Mississippi sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $26,516 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Mississippi then takes its own share, leaving $23,146.
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 Mississippi is $29,710. 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 ($23,450 to $36,880) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Mississippi rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Mississippi'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 $26,516 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 $23,146 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Mississippi 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.