Physical Therapist Aides in South Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$27,354
after federal, FICA and South Dakota tax
Tax takes
$3,976
12.7% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$31,050
South Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in South Dakota — 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
$31,330
Kept after tax
$27,354
Worth in national money
$31,050
State rank
34
of 50 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for physical therapist aides is on the low side in South Dakota. The middle earner gets $31,330. That is 34 of 50 states, and about 11.1% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Against 457 occupations South Dakota publishes, physical therapist aides lands at 435. That is the lower quarter. That is the comparison people actually feel, more than any national table.
- South Dakota is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $31,330 the take-home is $27,354; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $31,050 would nationally. The average comes to $33,890, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For physical therapist aides, South Dakota sits in the lower band at $31,330, ranking 34 of 50 and trailing the national median by about 11.1%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Within South Dakota, this work ranks 435 of 457 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.
- Post-tax income for physical therapist aides in South Dakota, on $31,330, is $27,354 — equivalent to $31,050 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $33,890 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $24,010 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $31,330 |
| Top tenth earn over | $44,770 |
| This salary | $31,330 |
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 South Dakota | $27,354 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $27,354 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$2,901 |
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 | $31,330 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$3,509 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 88 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of physical therapist aides in South Dakota earn under $31,330 and half over. The published range runs $24,010 at the tenth percentile to $44,770 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind South Dakota's $27,354, worked from $31,330. 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 435 of 457.
- Two cautions on $31,050, the adjusted value of that $31,330 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of South Dakota. 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 435 of 457 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for physical therapist aides in South Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $24,010 to $44,770; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- The South Dakota take-home of $27,354, on $31,330 for work ranking 435 of 457 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 435 of 457 in the state.
- This $31,050 adjusted figure, worked from $31,330, 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 435 of 457 in the state. The occupation ranks 435 of 457 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $33,890, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $24,010 at the bottom tenth to $44,770 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 South Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $31,050 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
No. $27,354 survives, because South Dakota levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.
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 South Dakota is $33,890. 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 ($24,010 to $44,770) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to South Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
South Dakota'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 $31,050 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?
South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $27,354 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.
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.