Therapist Hourly Pay Rates Examined (Part 1)
First of all, to everyone who contributed to our survey, thank you so much!
We collected and analyzed responses from more than 50 Florida-based Therapy offices and you made this informational article possible.
Before we look at the data, I want to be clear about how this information was gathered. This is not a scientific poll or survey so the data is only as good as the collection method. The survey questions did not specify whether the Therapist was a Contractor or Employee so that will cause some outliers in the results. Finally, any size office could (and did) respond. That said, this article will examine Full Therapist only (SLP, OT, PT). A future article will break down SLPAs, COTAs, and PTAs.
The chart below examines Therapists with 5 years of experience or less. The first thing I noticed was that most offices (roughly 60%) pay their junior Therapists somewhere between $40-$50 per hour. That seemed a little higher than I expected but looks pretty consistent across all 3 disciplines. One minor note was that junior OTs have a 10-12% higher chance of being paid less than their ST and PT peers. Another surprise was that PTs seem to make a little more than their peers on average, even at the junior level.
The chart below examines Therapists with 5-10 years of experience. There is about a $5 increase across the board for therapists at this stage in their career. More than 50% of SLPs at this stage in their career are making $46-$50 per hour. Also, no offices reported paying SLPs less than $36-$40 per hour.
The chart below examines Therapists with 10-15 years of experience. This chart is the most “normalized” of all the experience categories. Roughly 80% of Therapists at this stage in their career made between $46-$55 per hour. 10% of OTs at this stage in their career made less than $46 per hour and no offices reported SLPs or PTs making less than $36 per hour as expected.
The chart below examines Therapists with more than 15 years of experience. There is about a $5 increase across the board for therapists at this stage in their career when compared to the previous chart. Also, between 15-20% of therapist at this stage in their career are making $56 per hour or more. These are the “Golden Years for Occupational as they seem to make far more at this stage in their career than any other stage.
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My Key takeaways by Discipline are:
SLP: Speech Therapists seem to quickly make $45 or more per hour regardless of the experience level but they can stagnate at that pay rate for the majority of their career.
OT: Occupational Therapists, on average, make less than their peers until late in their careers.
PT: Physical Therapists consistently start at a higher pay rate than any other discipline and maintain that rate advantage throughout their careers.
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