Physical Therapist Assistant Salary | How Much Does a PTA Make? 

Thanks for sharing Robert. You’re right - you can definitely make a good amount of money in HH as a PT or PTA!

But LA is super expensive

Thanks for sharing bro. That’s inspiring for sure. I’m in LA pursuing the same career. Hoping for even comparable success!

I'm in LA looking to do the same, that's really inspiring. How long have you been in the field and get to where you are?

@@PTProgress how can a maximize pay as a PTA?

I 100% agree with you, while the courses are challenging, I can make it work it’s it’s only two years and pays crazy well

Totally agree. It's one of the few great trades where you can make money and pay off debt in a short amount of time. In CA, there's a lot of opportunities to earn top dollar. I'm a PTA in the Bay Area, full time outpatient and per diem HH, where I make around just over 100k/yr

@@kcheweezy Kevin i am looking to go back to school and complete a pta degree. I'm not going to lie I'm scared as he'll with the science courses. What courses did you have to take?

I graduated with zero student loan debt. I had 100% of my schooling paid for by Pell Grants.

@Diego Garcia-Gonzalez Just graduated last year and although it's intense it was well worth it. As a new grad I started at just above 60k a year

@@xOscarIGZx May I ask where you are located?

@@terryharris9265 In California. Central valley

@@xOscarIGZx How are you liking it so far? I was going to do a job shadow on monday for PTA

@@xOscarIGZx you gonna change diapers?

How much hours do you work a week?

@Christian Fernandez I work on average 24 patients per week at an hour per patient. So about 24 hours per week plus drive time which isn't much because I am in a localized area.

@@noleman74 if you could, could you work with more people to get more hours? Starting PTA School soon so curious.

Did your start PTA at a later age in life.

Thinking about going into pta as a 28 year old. Anything you wish you knew before you started?

Was this your typical Mon-Friday 40 hour settings?

great channel , did an interview about the PTA profession here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2i6uNGv1bSI.html

That’s awesome! Congrats!

How’s the program so far?

Am in school 🏫 rn for PTA. 😊

@@savannahwynter9593 how are you liking it so far? 😇

Hows the program going for ya? :)

Rip

Thats what I'd like to know

Less school and 7k in debt vs more school and 200k in debt.

@@blackout4338 Lol true

Program in Florida is 11k

I’m 3 weeks in pta program and if you pass kinesiology the first semester… smooth ride to become pta

CarsWithFrank congrats! Good decision!

How did it go ? How is PTA life ?

How’s PTA doing you. Starting school on April. Very excited.

@@jimmysal4992 Decided it wasn’t for me 😂 had an opportunity to do remote work and chose that instead

I don’t think 100% of PTA jobs will dry up in the next 5 years but the outlook may change a bit. Decreased reimbursement means companies have less money to pay staff so that could lead to cut hours or even cut positions. PTAs are not as expensive from a salary perspective, but if insurance pays less for care provided by a PTA (not the case now but may evolve to this) then companies may use PTAs less.

@@PTProgress Man... I'm 22 years old and I thought PTA would be a solid ROI, better actually than a DPT... I'm willing to do HH, travel, or basically anything. I hear some PTA's 80k+ and all that for a 8k/2year education??? But now hearing all this is making me reconsider. Would you consider it a good financial/career move? Your opinion is very valuable to me. Thanks man.

Thank you so much for the info..very informative...But so many variables for each job setting which you very briefly alluded to and I'm sure if u would have done that this video clip would have been..who knows how long?...so Great job compacting it. My advice as a Home Health PTA for 27 years... is I would rather be a PTA than a PT...and for these 2 reasons...1..I get to do the hands-on routine visits and secondly I don't want to be just doing evaluations, re evals and discharges with an overwhelming amount of paperwork(Tablet/computer) that my PT has to do...I feel bad that he misses out on that but he I'm assuming he gets paid very well (he deservedly should). So there are some of my opinionated variables

They are actually planning to upgrade the PTA program to a Masters degree level in the next few years so I don't think it's going anywhere.

Pta

How do you like it so far? Joining next year hopefully

Regulators Of Christ R.O.C Love it so far. Very busy and lots of material, but also very fun. Hope everything goes well for you! 😊

What school are you going to?

@@stephanieh8692 what school are you attending. I want to do it too but I'm confused on how to start. I'm in community college right now

Gods Child - PDGM

That's what I want to know!!!

No I do not feel it is.

@@danettekerr3466 ya I all ready moved on to something else

Nice! Did you land a travel job yet?

I’m working locally right now ,I’m going to start traveling next month.

Son pierrelouis how is the pay?

@@nolimitbenny7821 what company, I am a PTA and would like to start traveling

@@fegerstein since no one commented, Cross Country is a good agency. I had a friend from high school use them for a 15 week contract and she had a great experience.

No, a PTA is an associate level degree in and of itself. You’d graduate with something along the lines of “associate in pre physical therapy” or something like that.

@@joelmier2005 Ok Sir

You get an A.A.S. in PTA Associate of Applied Science. The most important thing is passing your national exam to get your license to practice. You can have your associates but you need your license to practice PT.

@@user-jq4tw3iq6e sorry I’m 5 months late but I really want to go into this career. i have a question though, what do I do after high school? Do I apply for an associate in biology and then do PTA program or do I apply for an associate for applied science as a freshmen? Aren’t there prerequisites and stuff?

@@bruh-bn3niEach program has its own prerequisites. Find a college with a PTA program and look at their criteria or speak to an admissions counselor. Most are just your general admission requirements and college level ACA, English, and Math. Others may require Physics in high school or college, one or the other. Some may allow you to apply to the PTA program while you’re enrolled to take prerequisites. It is kind of cookie cutter but there is flexibility. Also, at my age 46, classes expire. So, most programs want science and biology classes to be less than 10 years old and some require less than 5 years. I am retaking classes I took 14 years ago.

Can you elaborate please? I've never heard of working full time PRN Do you mean you're on call?

@@thekylemontilla I work as an independent contractor, my contacts call me / schedule me for x amount of hours needed one week in advance, currently I am working in 2 outpatient clinics and one skilled nursing facility

@@Loso561 I see, how does one go and become an independent contractor?

@@thekylemontilla some job openings offer PRN work or you can offer your therapy services at different places

If you don’t mine how is the pay? I’m going to school for PTA

??

Most courses are about 2 years or 18 months

Fuck that then😭

Pdpm?

@@patches1396 Patient-Driven Payment Model

@@KYALEONE What does that mean?

Is this still a prominent issue?

Depends on you as individual and support. By the way im a PTA in NY and my wife is going for OT full time. With kids PTA from a PTA 1. Quick to finish 2. Low debt (depending on school) 3. Can get pass the national average wage as a contractor(1099 not w-2 employee) + good tax preparer in the least diserable settings according to new grads (nursing home or homecare) running yourself as a business has its benefits and drawbacks just depends on your abilty to hustle. Depending on your personality I feel if your a team player hands on and really a people person PTA is right for you. Also depending on your mental fortitude do really see your self studying, getting ready for practicals for a longer time span than PTA. If your kids are young its mental drain with them and studying for so long (my opinion). Also do you have the prereqs ( 2 anat physi, 2 bios 2 chems 2 physics 1 psych 1 english 1 math gpa thats competitive ) for DPT school +bachelors degree+ volunteer and 2 or more recommendations. But...DPT 1.Way higher pay especially (1099 not w-2 but no company benefits 401k etc but do ya need that? Thats for another topic) 2. More options in settings ( option for teaching now) 3. Telehealth for home care got big after the pandemic. You can hustle and add telehealth visits for homecare for evaluations (high paying) + be in the setting that you enjoy. The telehealth decreases your need to be at every location. Imagine covering 3 PTAs and your doing a eval while on the couch...not saying to do that but yea seen it done. 4. But comes with ALOT of documentation and responsibility If your technical, see yourself as a quarterback, but still know how to get your point across without being a douche youll be a great PT . Also your gonna need ALOT of help with the kids. Like your not taking care of the kids kind of help. 3 yrs of dedicated work rotations big time papers research more practicals and presentations. So look at it from 1.whats my support 2. Who am i as an individual 3. Delayed gratification 4. Where am I at with current course work. Bacehlor degree pre reqs gpa. Can i afford free labor (ya gotta volunteer at clinics for free and have the recommended courses within a certain time frame Anatomy apparently expires...i didnt know the human body is still being updated ) 5. Where am I finiancially...your not working full time for either. Im sorry I cant see that happening unless you got passive income or 4-5 yr savìngs somewhere. I did personal training during my time as PTA student it paid for some bills but it wasnt enough. My friends Chase and Capital one and Discover fit the rest of the bills. Hope this help. I know it was alot but i wish someone told me this stuff before i got out of high school. Would have done this sooner. Anymore questions free to ask.

yespta is good

Hi Kristi. If a program offers an OTA, it would be separate from a PTA program. You can check with the programs to make sure you didn’t overlook something on the website, but they’re not a combined program.

PTProgress thank you, I really needed to know this! I live in Central Florida, and all the colleges around me only offer PTA.....

I like both fields but I have to ensure good pay, do you know which profession gets paid better? And how their schedules may differ?

@@kristilynn5655 do it for your passion for whatever one you pick. I suggest shadowing if you haven't already.

Yes math no physics

No. PTA requires schooling and passing a licensure exam etc...

@@braydencounts165 is that exam hard? What score do you need?

@@benjistylez4923 i highly highly HIGHLY recommend “NPTE Final Frontier” it can be expensive, but this made me SO confident when testing. The test definitely is not a breeze, but it is obviously possible if you spend the time studying. I believe a 600 is passing. 800 is top score.

@@braydencounts165 and if you fail what happen?

@@braydencounts165 do you also change diapers from old ppl?

Can you elaborate more as I was actually thinking about trying to go to pt school soon

Taaaaaylor PT or PTA?

jeremy schmitt PTA until I’m ready to become a PT

I absolutely agree! I do home health physical therapy and have been doing that for 10 years now . I’ve done outpatient and skilled nursing. I usually make about 80-90 thousand dollars a year. However with the whole PDGM changes, there was a lot of cuts, my pay was cut 10$ a visit. (I am paid per visit) . It’s not looking good for this career. I am looking for an alternative career ....... it’s getting worse . I can’t find a second job to supplement either . There is very little work now .

Pay has decreased in skilled nursing as well. Patients are getting less minutes of therapy with more grouping . The quality of therapy for patients is suffering and therapist are working much harder to make less money. It’s so sad. This use to be such a good field to work it. I know many new grads who can’t get work and therapist with experience leaving for other careers

How’s it going now?

@@Melissa-rb6ct I graduated, my opinion is school is way harder then the PTA national examination

@@fabriziom0010 dang, is the job hard? The pay good? Is it worth it pretty much?

@@Melissa-rb6ct The job isn’t bad or super difficult, the pay is good, per dm ( when they need you they call ) offers a better flat rate of 35/hr It’s definitely worth for pay yes ! It’s definitely good for branching into home health which is where you drive to patients as a PTA and you get up to 45/hr or per patient i’m not sure you need usually 2 yrs experience before that.

Must have been for an aide not an assistant. If it was for a PT assistant thats crazy

Not sure what it’s like to work in Canada

Those are before tax figures

Like he said, it depends on where you’re at. I’m in north Louisiana making $35/hour with overtime. It’s a good job as long as you continue to look for jobs and don’t listen to the negative Nancy PTA’s. There’s a ton of them if you look in the comment section

@@lanedale5356 thanks and yeah I looked up Travel PTA, surprisingly here in Ohio where I’m at, a travel pta can up to about $70k which sucks cause I plan on leaving Ohio once I get my degree

@@musclemanmonty oh yea I make 72k before taxes and overtime with what I have now and that’s if I don’t do PRN. You can make money it just depends on the area and how willing you are. Also, if you have a proffesional manner that helps promote yourself. I’m surprised by how many people have zero proffesionalism about themselves

@@lanedale5356 thank you 🙏🏾 also what’s prn?