Travel Physical Therapist Salary 2026: BLS Pay, BluePipes Listing Medians, Stipends and the PT Compact

Physical therapy had the most listings of the four allied categories we read on BluePipes on 27 October 2026, and travel PT pay is built like travel nurse pay: a taxable hourly wage plus tax-free housing and meal stipends, capped by GSA per diem and conditional on a qualifying tax home. This page puts the published numbers next to each other. Every figure comes from a page we read on the date shown, and we are a pay calculator and data site, not an agency or a job board.

What physical therapists earn as staff (BLS)

When we read the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook page for Physical Therapists on 27 October 2026 (page last modified 27 August 2026), its quick facts said:

• 2025 median pay: $102,760 a year, $49.40 an hour.
• Number of jobs, 2025: 283,700.
• Job outlook, 2025–35: 12%, which BLS labels “much faster than average”, an employment change of 33,800.
• Typical entry-level education: doctoral or professional degree.

The pay section reads: “The median annual wage for physical therapists was $102,760 in May 2025”, with “the lowest 10 percent earned less than $77,140, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $135,140.” On entry, “Physical therapists entering the occupation need a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree”, and “All states require physical therapists to be licensed, which includes passing a qualifying exam.”

These are annual staff wages for the whole occupation, not travel figures, and a travel contract is quoted weekly for a fixed number of weeks. The BLS median is useful as the benchmark for what the facility pays its own therapists in the market you are weighing.

What travel PT listings pay (BluePipes)

When we read BluePipes’ travel physical therapist jobs page on 27 October 2026, it said: “The median pay for Travel Physical Therapist jobs on BluePipes over the last 7 days is $2161 per week”, the average was $2,165 a week, and “There are 13030 Travel Physical Therapist jobs on BluePipes as of October 27, 2026.” It named California, Georgia and Washington as the states with the most listings, without printing counts.

Those are figures from listings over the previous seven days, not signed contracts, and they change daily. The volume is the striking part: 13,030 listings that day, against 3,643 for occupational therapists, 1,017 for surgical techs and 673 for rad techs on the same site. Settings vary a lot for PTs, from acute care and inpatient rehab to skilled nursing, outpatient and home health, and the listing median blends all of them.

How the travel package is built

A travel PT offer has two parts:

1. A taxable hourly wage, paid for hours worked and subject to federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and state income tax where the state levies one.
2. Tax-free stipends for housing and for meals and incidentals, which you can receive untaxed only if you maintain a qualifying tax home and are working away from it. Without one, the whole package is taxable wages.

The stipends are capped by GSA per diem for the assignment locality, and two ceilings apply:

• Housing ceiling = GSA lodging rate × 7.
• Combined per diem ceiling = (lodging + meals and incidentals) × 7.

Under GSA FY2027 per diem (1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027) the CONUS standard rate, which applies anywhere GSA lists no specific locality, is $113 a night lodging and $68 a day M&IE. In the three states BluePipes named for PT listings:

Compare a housing stipend against the housing column only. A housing stipend above the lodging ceiling should be taxed as wages, and an offer that quotes the combined figure as “the stipend max” is overstating what can be paid tax-free for housing. Seattle is seasonal ($255 a night from June to October, $188 the rest of the year), so a summer and a winter contract in the same building have different ceilings. Month-by-month schedules are on the per diem pages for California, Georgia and Washington.

Check the stipend with the stipend calculator and run the taxable wage through the tax calculator for federal tax and FICA. The tools are labelled for nurses but the arithmetic is the same for any W-2 traveler paid a wage plus stipends. Washington levies no wage income tax, so the tool can show a full net figure there; for most states it computes federal tax and FICA and says state tax is excluded rather than guessing.

Licensure, the NPTE and the PT Compact

The licensing exam is the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE). The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy’s NPTE candidate handbook page, read on 27 October 2026, says “FSBPT develops, maintains, and administers the National Physical Therapy Examination” for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants, and that the exam is “only one part of the evaluation process used by licensing authorities”, supplemented in some jurisdictions by other requirements.

The reason PT travel is easier to set up than most allied travel is the PT Compact. When we read the compact’s member states page on 27 October 2026, it listed 38 member states “actively issuing and accepting compact privileges”: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Maine, Michigan and Rhode Island had enacted the legislation but were “not yet issuing or accepting compact privileges”; Illinois and Massachusetts had legislation introduced but not enacted. California is not on any of those lists, so the state with the most PT listings still needs a full California license.

The compact’s how to get privileges page, read the same day, lists the conditions: “Hold a valid PT or PTA license in your home state (must be a compact member)”, “Have a valid driver’s license proving permanent residency in your home state”, “No active encumbrances or disciplinary actions in the past two years”, and “The state you want to practice in must be a compact member”. Fees vary by state (the page gives Alabama’s PT fee as $130 and Alaska’s as $245), “Each state has different fees and may require passing a jurisprudence exam”, and failing to take a required exam “can lead to the termination of your compact privilege and disciplinary action”. The page does not say how long a privilege lasts.

Note the residency requirement: a compact privilege is tied to the state of your driver’s license, which is usually also your tax home. Moving your domicile to chase a contract can affect both.

How allied travel differs from RN travel

The allied health hub covers the general picture, and the travel respiratory therapist page is the worked example. For PTs specifically:

• Same package, same tax rules. Taxable wage plus GSA-capped stipends, tax home required, two-state tax exposure if your home state taxes wages.
• A compact exists, unlike for rad techs or surgical techs, but it does not cover California, and it carries a home-state residency condition.
• Setting replaces unit. Where a nurse negotiates on unit and acuity, a PT negotiates on setting, caseload and productivity expectations. Ask for the expected visits or units per day in writing.
• The deepest allied market. 13,030 BluePipes listings on 27 October 2026, so location and start date are more negotiable than in the smaller allied categories.

Finding a travel PT contract

We do not place travelers and we are not a staffing agency. If you want a contract, you can tell us what you are looking for: the form is written for nurses, so choose “Other” as the specialty and put “physical therapist”, your setting preferences and your compact or state licenses in the notes. With your permission we introduce you to a partner recruiter whose agency has a referral agreement with us, or we tell you if none covers your request yet.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do travel physical therapists make per week?

When we read BluePipes on 27 October 2026, its travel physical therapist listings page said the median pay for travel physical therapist jobs over the previous seven days was $2,161 a week, the average was $2,165, and there were 13,030 travel physical therapist jobs on the site that day, with California, Georgia and Washington named as the states with the most listings. These are listing figures, not signed contracts, and they change daily.

What is the median salary for a physical therapist?

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, read 27 October 2026, says the median annual wage for physical therapists was $102,760 in May 2025 ($49.40 an hour), with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $77,140 and the highest 10 percent more than $135,140. BLS projects 12% employment growth from 2025 to 2035. These are staff wages for the whole occupation, not travel pay.

Which states are in the PT Compact?

When we read ptcompact.org on 27 October 2026, it listed 38 member states actively issuing and accepting compact privileges, three states (Maine, Michigan and Rhode Island) with enacted legislation but not yet issuing, and two (Illinois and Massachusetts) with legislation introduced but not enacted. A compact privilege requires a valid PT license in a home state that is a compact member, a driver’s license proving residency there, no active encumbrances or disciplinary action in the past two years, and a destination state that is also a member.

What is the maximum tax-free housing stipend for a travel PT?

For a traveler with a qualifying tax home, the weekly housing ceiling is the GSA lodging rate for the assignment locality times seven. Under GSA FY2027 per diem the standard rate is $113 a night, so $791 a week anywhere GSA lists no locality; Los Angeles is $1,393 a week all year and Seattle runs from $1,316 (November to May) to $1,785 (June to October). The combined per diem ceiling adds the meals rate and is a different, higher number.

Data reviewed 27 October 2026. BLS figures are from the Occupational Outlook Handbook as read on that date (May 2025 wages, 2025–35 projections). Weekly pay figures attributed to BluePipes are that site’s own, as published on 27 October 2026. GSA figures are GSA’s FY2027 locality rates. PT Compact and FSBPT statements are from ptcompact.org and fsbpt.org as read on 27 October 2026. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.