---
title: "Physical Therapist Aide"
description: "Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations.…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-aide"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Physical Therapist Aide

**Category:** Healthcare Support · **SOC code:** 31-2022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 31-2022.00

Under close supervision of a physical therapist or physical therapy assistant, perform only delegated, selected, or routine tasks in specific situations. These duties include preparing the patient and the treatment area.

Also advertised as: Physical Therapist Aide (PTA); Physical Therapy Aide (PTA); PT Attendant (Physical Therapy Attendant); PT Tech (Physical Therapist Technician); PT Tech (Physical Therapy Technician); Rehabilitation Aide; Rehabilitation Attendant; Rehabilitation Technician (Rehabilitation Tech).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,240 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $16.94/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $25,360 to $47,780, with the middle half between $30,410 and $38,810
- **Total US employment:** 48,150
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 6,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 55/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 48,150 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $25,360 |
| 25th | $30,410 |
| 50th (median) | $35,240 |
| 75th | $38,810 |
| 90th | $47,780 |
| Mean (average) | $36,430 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $55,760 | $54,475 | 110 |
| MN | $42,330 | $42,922 | 150 |
| CO | $41,970 | $40,727 | 360 |
| NH | $40,460 | $38,842 | 130 |
| ME | $39,660 | $40,866 | 90 |
| WA | $39,500 | $36,911 | 760 |
| DC | $38,950 | $35,441 | 30 |
| MT | $38,950 | $41,154 | 110 |
| CA | $38,330 | $34,619 | 7,330 |
| ND | $37,680 | $42,357 | 120 |
| MA | $37,440 | $35,402 | 1,020 |
| OH | $37,220 | $40,119 | 760 |
| WI | $36,820 | $39,131 | 840 |
| IL | $36,650 | $36,665 | 680 |
| OR | $36,060 | $34,887 | 1,090 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-aide/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/physical-therapist-aide.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 49,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 51,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 2,000 jobs, or +4.0%. About as fast as average: 4.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 6,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 34.4% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 25.1% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 10.1% |
| Doctoral Degree | 10.1% |
| Some College Courses | 9.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 8.6% |

## What the work involves

- Clean and organize work area and disinfect equipment after treatment.
- Arrange treatment supplies to keep them in order.
- Secure patients into or onto therapy equipment.
- Instruct, motivate, safeguard, or assist patients practicing exercises or functional activities, under direction of medical staff.
- Transport patients to and from treatment areas, using wheelchairs or providing standing support.
- Assist patients to dress, undress, or put on and remove supportive devices, such as braces, splints, or slings.
- Perform clerical duties, such as taking inventory, ordering supplies, answering telephone, taking messages, or filling out forms.
- Change linens, such as bed sheets and pillow cases.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Therapy and Counseling — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.95 |
| R — Realistic | 4.74 |
| C — Conventional | 3.92 |
| I — Investigative | 2.58 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.06 |
| A — Artistic | 1.07 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 80.5 |
| ESFJ | 76.2 |
| ESTJ | 64.1 |
| ESFP | 61.8 |
| ISTJ | 60.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Physical Therapist Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-assistant) — median $68,380
- [Occupational Therapy Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapy-aide) — median $39,160
- [Occupational Therapy Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapy-assistant) — median $72,300
- [Psychiatric Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatric-technician) — median $45,130
- [Psychiatric Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatric-aide) — median $44,910
- [Occupational Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-therapist) — median $100,330
- [Respiratory Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/respiratory-therapist) — median $82,280
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Nursing Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant) — median $42,260
- [Massage Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/massage-therapist) — median $58,450

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/physical-therapist-aide