Physical Therapist Assistants in Massachusetts
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,077
after federal, FICA and Massachusetts tax
Tax takes
$18,383
23.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$56,429
Massachusetts costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Massachusetts — 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
$79,460
Kept after tax
$61,077
Worth in national money
$56,429
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Massachusetts pays physical therapist assistants a middle wage of $79,460, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 16.2% above the national middle.
- Middle of the local pack. Of 485 occupations Massachusetts reports figures for, this is number 188.
- Massachusetts is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $79,460 the take-home is $61,077; in national-average money that behaves like $56,429. The average lands at $76,350, below the middle of the range.
- Massachusetts's median for physical therapist assistants is $79,460, about 16.2% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- In Massachusetts's occupational distribution, physical therapist assistants sits at 188 of 485 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
- Take-home for physical therapist assistants in Massachusetts, on $79,460, is $61,077; deflated by the state's price level, $56,429. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $76,350 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
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 | $62,030 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $79,460 |
| Top tenth earn over | $88,280 |
| This salary | $79,460 |
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 Massachusetts | $61,077 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,730 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,183 |
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 | $74,267 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,929 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 108 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $79,460 as a midpoint for Massachusetts, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $62,030 and the ninetieth is $88,280 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Massachusetts the take-home figure of $61,077, from $79,460, 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 188 of 485 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $56,429 uses one figure for the whole of Massachusetts. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 485 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 188.
- The Massachusetts median of $79,460 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $62,030 to $88,280. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Massachusetts is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $61,077 from $79,460. 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 188 of 485 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $56,429, worked from $79,460, 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 Massachusetts address, on work sitting at 188 of 485 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 $76,350 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $62,030 and the top tenth $88,280, so most people doing this work in Massachusetts sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Massachusetts costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $56,429 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 Massachusetts's own levy, $61,077 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.
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 Massachusetts is $76,350. 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 ($62,030 to $88,280) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Massachusetts rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Massachusetts's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $56,429 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 $61,077 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Massachusetts 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.