Travel Therapy Pay Index
Q3 2026 Edition — computed July 6, 2026 from 769 active travel therapy contracts.
Travel therapy weekly gross pay, July 6, 2026: across 769 live ProTherapy contracts, the median physical therapist (PT) package is $2,280/week, physical therapist assistants (PTA) $1,460, occupational therapists (OT) $2,280, COTAs $1,460, and speech-language pathologists (SLP) $2,190. Every figure below is computed from our live feed — never estimated.
1. National medians by discipline
Weekly gross pay across all live ProTherapy travel contracts on the snapshot date, by discipline. The 10th and 90th percentiles show the spread; the median is the middle contract and the mean is the simple average. Run your own package through the Pay Calculator to see how a given weekly gross translates to take-home.
| Discipline | Contracts (n) | p10 | Median | p90 | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Therapist (PT) | 325 | $2,130 | $2,280 | $2,770 | $2,346 |
| Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) | 182 | $1,260 | $1,460 | $1,680 | $1,489 |
| Occupational Therapist (OT) | 95 | $2,130 | $2,280 | $2,714 | $2,365 |
| Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) | 95 | $1,260 | $1,460 | $1,740 | $1,482 |
| Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) | 71 | $2,130 | $2,190 | $2,770 | $2,325 |
Median = the middle contract's weekly gross (half pay more, half pay less). p10/p90 = the 10th and 90th percentiles. All figures rounded to the nearest dollar.
2. Pay by state
Median weekly gross by state and discipline, states listed alphabetically. Each cell shows the median and its contract count (n). A dash (—) means fewer than 3 contracts in that cell — suppressed rather than shown. States with fewer than 5 total contracts are left out entirely. Compare the take-home reality of high-gross states in our highest-paying states guide and the interactive salary map. Some of the strongest-paying markets right now include New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, California, and Montana.
| State | PT | PTA | OT | COTA | SLP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabaman=19 | $2,340n=13 | $1,540n=3 | — | — | $2,130n=3 |
| Arizonan=9 | $2,340n=8 | — | — | — | — |
| Californian=116 | $2,570n=45 | $1,680n=18 | $2,555n=26 | $1,680n=22 | $2,480n=5 |
| Connecticutn=9 | $2,130n=4 | $1,500n=4 | — | — | — |
| Delawaren=5 | $2,340n=4 | — | — | — | — |
| Floridan=36 | $2,250n=15 | $1,540n=7 | $2,280n=5 | $1,540n=3 | $2,280n=6 |
| Illinoisn=40 | $2,340n=15 | $1,340n=7 | $2,280n=11 | $1,460n=7 | — |
| Iowan=23 | $2,340n=4 | $1,460n=9 | $2,570n=5 | $1,460n=5 | — |
| Kansasn=17 | $2,130n=5 | $1,460n=7 | — | $1,460n=4 | — |
| Mainen=9 | $2,630n=3 | $1,680n=4 | — | — | — |
| Marylandn=31 | $2,130n=12 | $1,360n=6 | $2,130n=3 | $1,260n=4 | $2,130n=6 |
| Massachusettsn=41 | $2,130n=19 | $1,460n=9 | $2,130n=3 | $1,460n=6 | $2,450n=4 |
| Michigann=25 | $2,280n=7 | $1,460n=7 | — | $1,340n=6 | $2,250n=5 |
| Mississippin=5 | $2,130n=3 | — | — | — | — |
| Missourin=6 | $2,130n=3 | — | — | — | — |
| Montanan=19 | $2,480n=5 | — | $2,570n=7 | $1,820n=3 | — |
| Nevadan=8 | $2,280n=5 | — | — | — | — |
| New Hampshiren=18 | $2,700n=10 | $1,820n=3 | — | — | $2,680n=5 |
| New Jerseyn=68 | $2,130n=27 | $1,260n=26 | — | $1,260n=8 | $2,130n=5 |
| New Mexicon=18 | $2,480n=7 | $1,570n=5 | — | $1,460n=3 | — |
| North Carolinan=12 | $2,190n=7 | $1,600n=3 | — | — | — |
| Oklahoman=8 | $2,130n=3 | $1,460n=3 | — | — | — |
| Oregonn=15 | $2,190n=7 | $1,460n=3 | — | — | $2,460n=3 |
| Pennsylvanian=17 | $2,130n=10 | $1,360n=4 | — | — | — |
| Rhode Islandn=6 | — | $1,460n=3 | — | — | — |
| South Carolinan=24 | $2,340n=13 | $1,680n=9 | — | — | — |
| South Dakotan=11 | $2,130n=3 | $1,460n=3 | $2,130n=3 | — | — |
| Tennesseen=7 | $2,190n=3 | — | — | — | — |
| Texasn=27 | $2,340n=13 | $1,460n=10 | — | $1,460n=3 | — |
| Vermontn=5 | $2,625n=4 | — | — | — | — |
| Virginian=35 | $2,280n=17 | $1,540n=9 | — | $1,540n=4 | $2,190n=3 |
| Washingtonn=10 | $2,205n=4 | — | — | — | — |
| West Virginian=9 | $2,305n=4 | — | — | — | — |
Top-paying states for PT (by median weekly gross)
| # | State | Median wk | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | $2,700 | 10 |
| 2 | Maine | $2,630 | 3 |
| 3 | Vermont | $2,625 | 4 |
| 4 | California | $2,570 | 45 |
| 5 | Montana | $2,480 | 5 |
| 6 | New Mexico | $2,480 | 7 |
| 7 | Alabama | $2,340 | 13 |
| 8 | Arizona | $2,340 | 8 |
| 9 | Delaware | $2,340 | 4 |
| 10 | Illinois | $2,340 | 15 |
Highest-median OT states
| # | State | Median wk | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa | $2,570 | 5 |
| 2 | Montana | $2,570 | 7 |
| 3 | California | $2,555 | 26 |
| 4 | Florida | $2,280 | 5 |
| 5 | Illinois | $2,280 | 11 |
| 6 | Maryland | $2,130 | 3 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | $2,130 | 3 |
| 8 | South Dakota | $2,130 | 3 |
Highest-median SLP states
| # | State | Median wk | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | $2,680 | 5 |
| 2 | California | $2,480 | 5 |
| 3 | Oregon | $2,460 | 3 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | $2,450 | 4 |
| 5 | Florida | $2,280 | 6 |
| 6 | Michigan | $2,250 | 5 |
| 7 | Virginia | $2,190 | 3 |
| 8 | Alabama | $2,130 | 3 |
| 9 | Maryland | $2,130 | 6 |
| 10 | New Jersey | $2,130 | 5 |
3. Pay by setting
Median weekly gross by clinical setting and discipline. Only contracts posted to a single, unambiguous setting are counted here; contracts tagged with several settings at once are excluded from this table to avoid attributing one rate to multiple buckets. The School setting was left out of the setting table this edition for insufficient single-setting data (n<5). How setting shapes pay is broken down further in our pay packages explained guide.
| Setting | PT | PTA | OT | COTA | SLP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skilled Nursing (SNF)n=613 | $2,130n=224 | $1,460n=162 | $2,190n=69 | $1,460n=93 | $2,130n=65 |
| Outpatientn=83 | $2,340n=67 | $1,680n=9 | $2,555n=6 | — | — |
| Inpatient / Acuten=31 | $2,480n=13 | $1,650n=6 | $2,480n=10 | — | — |
| Home Healthn=20 | $2,480n=14 | $1,680n=3 | $2,630n=3 | — | — |
4. Methodology
- Source
- ProTherapy Staffing's live contract feed — the same Website Job List Master data that powers our job board. No third-party or survey data is mixed in.
- Snapshot date
- July 6, 2026. This is a point-in-time snapshot of open contracts, not a rolling average. The index is re-computed every quarter.
- Weekly gross
- The full pre-tax weekly value of the contract as posted — the blended package combining the taxable hourly rate and non-taxable stipends (housing and meals) where they apply, per how travel pay packages are structured (see pay packages explained). It is a gross figure; take-home depends on your tax home and housing costs.
- De-duplication
- Byte-identical duplicate rows (identical discipline, state, city, setting, pay, and start date) are collapsed to a single contract before any median is taken — the same identity rule the job board uses — so a repeated posting cannot skew a median.
- Suppression
- Any discipline cell with fewer than 3 contracts is shown as "—". Any state or setting with fewer than 5 total contracts is dropped from the per-cut tables. States where no single discipline reached the n≥3 publication threshold are omitted from the state table but included in national figures. This edition shows 33 states — 12 dropped for fewer than 5 contracts and 4 for no publishable discipline — and suppressed 79 of 165 remaining state/discipline cells.
- Scope
- This index reflects ProTherapy Staffing's own contract inventory and may not represent the entire market. We publish it anyway, computed rather than estimated, because that transparency is what makes it worth citing.
5. Frequently asked questions
How often is the Travel Therapy Pay Index updated?
The index is refreshed quarterly. Each edition is a fresh snapshot of ProTherapy Staffing's live contract inventory on the stated snapshot date — it is not a rolling average, so numbers move edition to edition as the market and our open contracts change.
What counts as “weekly gross” in this index?
Weekly gross is the full pre-tax weekly value of the contract as posted in our feed — the blended package that combines the taxable hourly rate and any non-taxable stipends (housing and meals) where they apply, per how travel pay packages are structured. It is a gross, pre-tax figure; actual take-home depends on your tax home, the assignment state, and housing costs.
Why do some cells in the tables show “—” instead of a number?
A dash means we suppressed that figure because there was not enough data to publish a trustworthy median. Any discipline/state or discipline/setting cell with fewer than 3 contracts is shown as “—”, and any state or setting with fewer than 5 total contracts is left out of the per-cut tables entirely. We would rather show nothing than publish a number a single contract could swing.
Is this the whole travel therapy market?
No. This index reflects ProTherapy Staffing's own contract inventory and may not represent the entire market. It is a transparent read on what we are actually seeing on live contracts — which is exactly why the numbers are computed from the feed rather than estimated.
See what a package means for your take-home
Median weekly gross is a headline. Net pay is a calculation.
Open the Pay CalculatorData as of July 6, 2026, computed from ProTherapy Staffing's live contract feed (769 contracts). Weekly gross is pre-tax. This index reflects ProTherapy Staffing's own contract inventory and may not represent the entire market. Citation with attribution to ProTherapy Staffing is permitted.