Physical Therapists in Maryland
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$79,233
after federal, FICA and Maryland tax
Tax takes
$27,657
25.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$76,211
Maryland costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Maryland — 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
$106,890
Kept after tax
$79,233
Worth in national money
$76,211
State rank
5
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Maryland pays physical therapists a middle wage of $106,890, ranking 5 of 51 states and sitting about 4.02% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Maryland reports, physical therapists comes in at 77 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $106,890, tax leaves $79,233 — and because Maryland is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $76,211 would nationally. Averages run higher here, $110,700, since top earners drag the number up.
- Maryland's median for physical therapists is $106,890, about 4.02% above the national figure and 5 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.
- Physical therapists ranks 77 of 489 occupations by median in Maryland, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- After tax, $79,233 remains from the Maryland median of $106,890 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $76,211 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $110,700 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physical Therapists
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $79,990 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $106,890 |
| Top tenth earn over | $138,630 |
| This salary | $106,890 |
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 Maryland | $79,233 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $84,027 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$10,259 |
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 | $100,075 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$14,171 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 104 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $106,890 as a midpoint for Maryland, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $79,990 and the ninetieth is $138,630 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Maryland the take-home figure of $79,233, from $106,890, 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 77 of 489 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Maryland, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $76,211, the adjusted value of that $106,890 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 77 of 489 in the state.
- The Maryland median of $106,890 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $79,990 to $138,630. 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 Maryland is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $79,233 from $106,890. 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 77 of 489 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Maryland, so $76,211 — the adjusted value of that $106,890 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 77 of 489 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 $110,700 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
The range here is narrow. From $79,990 at the bottom tenth to $138,630 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $76,211 of national purchasing power.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Maryland adds its own income tax on top — which is why $79,233 of this wage survives to your account.
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 Maryland is $110,700. 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 ($79,990 to $138,630) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Maryland rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Maryland's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $76,211 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 $79,233 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Maryland 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.