Physical Therapist Assistants in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$52,913
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$11,737
18.2% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$52,334
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — 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
$64,650
Kept after tax
$52,913
Worth in national money
$52,334
State rank
27
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Arizona pays physical therapist assistants around $64,650 at the midpoint, 27 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Physical therapist assistants ranks 182 among 491 occupations Arizona publishes pay for.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $64,650, tax leaves $52,913, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $52,334 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $64,970, since top earners drag the number up.
- For physical therapist assistants the Arizona median is $64,650, ranking 27 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Position 182 of 491 in Arizona places physical therapist assistants in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for physical therapist assistants — median $64,650 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $52,913 retained, $52,334 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $64,970 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 Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,160 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $64,650 |
| Top tenth earn over | $79,570 |
| This salary | $64,650 |
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 Arizona | $52,913 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $54,126 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$3,366 |
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 | $63,139 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$4,070 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
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 assistants in Arizona earn under $64,650 and half over. The published range runs $36,160 at the tenth percentile to $79,570 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Arizona the take-home figure of $52,913, from $64,650, 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 182 of 491 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $52,334, the adjusted value of that $64,650 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Arizona. 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 182 of 491 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for physical therapist assistants in Arizona, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,160 to $79,570; 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.
- Take-home for Arizona is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $52,913 from $64,650. 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 182 of 491 locally.
- This $52,334 adjusted figure, worked from $64,650, 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 182 of 491 in the state. The occupation ranks 182 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $36,160 at the tenth percentile, $79,570 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Arizona costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $52,334 rather than its face figure.
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 Arizona's own levy, $52,913 remains.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,160 to $79,570) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $52,334 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $52,913 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona 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.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.