Physical Therapist Assistants in Texas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$63,703
after federal, FICA and Texas tax
Tax takes
$14,297
18.3% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$65,555
Texas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Texas — 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
$78,000
Kept after tax
$63,703
Worth in national money
$65,555
State rank
4
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Texas pays physical therapist assistants a middle wage of $78,000, ranking 4 of 51 states and sitting about 14.07% above the national middle.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Physical therapist assistants ranks 128 among 493 occupations Texas publishes pay for.
- Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $78,000 the take-home is $63,703, which is worth about $65,555 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is lower, $75,060, so pay clusters nearer the top than usual.
- Texas's median for physical therapist assistants is $78,000, about 14.07% above the national figure and 4 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.
- Position 128 of 493 in Texas 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.
- Texas's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for physical therapist assistants on its $78,000 median: $63,703 retained after tax becomes $65,555 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $75,060 falls below the median, a left skew that is uncommon in wage data.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physical Therapist Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $43,900 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,000 |
| Top tenth earn over | $99,640 |
| This salary | $78,000 |
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 Texas | $63,703 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $63,703 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,978 |
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 | $78,000 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,849 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
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 Texas earn under $78,000 and half over. The published range runs $43,900 at the tenth percentile to $99,640 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- That $63,703 take-home in Texas comes from $78,000. 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 128 of 493.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $65,555 uses one figure for the whole of Texas. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 493 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 128.
- Figures are distribution medians for physical therapist assistants in Texas, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $43,900 to $99,640; 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.
- Retained pay of $63,703, from $78,000, assumes a single Texas 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 128 of 493 locally, and the state ranks 4 of 51 for it.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $65,555, worked from $78,000, 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 Texas address, on work sitting at 128 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $75,060, 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 $43,900 at the bottom tenth to $99,640 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 Texas sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $65,555 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Is most of this wage taxed away?
Less than people assume. $63,703 of this wage reaches your account, because Texas takes no income tax from wages — but federal tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else.
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 Texas is $75,060. 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 ($43,900 to $99,640) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Texas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Texas'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 $65,555 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?
Texas levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $63,703 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.
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.