Is it Worth it Financially to be a Travel Physical Therapist?

Pursuing Travel Physical Therapy can help you create a dream life in many ways: exploring the country, trying new settings, having more lifestyle flexibility, enjoying more freedom with your time, and earning higher income. But of course, being a Travel PT isn’t always sunshine and butterflies. There are certainly some downsides that come along with choosing to take contracts as a travel physical therapist. Finding short term housing, packing and moving often, being away from friends and family, and licensing hassles are all negative factors to consider. The key when trying to decide if Travel PT is right for you is weighing the pros and cons to determine if the pros for your specific situation make it worth it. The most common reason that physical therapists cite for choosing to travel, especially as new grads, is to make more money. That begs the question, do travel physical therapists really come out ahead financially when considering the additional costs involved?

Do Travel Therapists Really Make More Money?

This is actually a harder question to answer than you would expect and, again, varies based on the individual traveler’s circumstances. I was able to achieve financial independence in a very short amount of time as a travel therapist, but that isn’t the case for everyone. Let’s take a look at some of the factors that go into this to help determine if being a Travel PT makes financial sense for you.

While I’m focusing on Travel PTs, the information here also applies to prospective Travel Occupational Therapists (OT), Speech Language Pathologists (SLP), Physical Therapy Assistants (PTA), and Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants (COTA) as well since most of the factors are exactly the same.

What are the Variables that Impact Traveler Pay?

The main variables that impact how much you can realistically make as a Travel PT include: setting, location, which travel company you work with, if the contract is direct or through a third party vendor, and how desperate the facility is for a therapist. A travel physical therapist considering a SNF job with a lot of applicants in South Carolina through a Vendor Management System (VMS) with a big travel company is going to make significantly less than a Travel PT considering a home health job with no other applicants in California through a direct client with a small travel company. Let’s break down the factors above to illustrate this.

• Setting: Home health contracts usually pay the most, on average, followed by outpatient, acute, schools, and SNF bringing up the rear. Of course this is only a generalization and the specific job will also be impacted by the other factors below.
• Location: Some states have higher insurance reimbursement rates for therapy services than others, and some rural/critical access facilities receive additional government funding which allows them to pay higher. Facilities in locations with higher reimbursement rates can afford to pay travelers more money, so many really high paying jobs are on the west coast and in places like rural Alaska where reimbursement is better.
• Travel Company: In general, smaller travel companies can pay travelers more due to lower overhead expenses, but this isn’t always the case. Every traveler wants to find the absolute highest paying travel therapy companies, but that’s not so easy since every travel company has its pros and cons including some intangible advantages that bigger companies often have over small companies. The amount that the travel company keeps on a contract varies but is often not as high as most new travelers think.
• Direct vs. VMS Jobs: Direct client contracts will always pay better than jobs through a VMS with all things being equal, due to there not being an additional middle man involved taking a portion of the bill rate.
• Supply/Demand: How in demand the contract is, meaning how many applicants they get, can massively change how much the facility is willing to pay for a travel physical therapist and how much negotiating power the therapist has. A facility in a desirable location that has 20 applicants for a travel position can get away with paying a lot less than a facility is a not so desirable location in desperate need of a traveler.

How Much do Travel Physical Therapists Actually Make?

On average, a travel physical therapist can expect to make between $1,700-$2,000/week after taxes for the vast majority of contracts, with where you land in that range being primarily driven by the variables above. There are some outlier contracts paying higher or lower, but those are usually less than 20% of the total available travel jobs and only in certain states (California mostly for over $2,000) and settings (home health for the highest paying jobs). We’ve seen Travel PT jobs listed for anywhere from $1,300/week to $3,300/week after taxes, so the range can be really big.

To compare travel pay, which is usually discussed in a weekly after-tax amount, vs. permanent job pay, which is usually discussed in an annual gross (pre-tax) salary, you’ll need to do some math and make sure you understand how to accurately make this comparison. To understand exactly how travel physical therapy pay works compared to that of a permanent physical therapy job, this guide will be very helpful.

But to give an example, an average travel therapist earning $1800/wk after taxes, working 48 weeks per year, would make the equivalent of a therapist at a permanent job making an annual gross salary of about $125,000/year.

How Much Could You Make at a Permanent PT Job?

Now that we know what you can likely expect to make as a travel physical therapist, we need to know what we’re comparing to in terms of the alternative at a perm position. Pay for permanent jobs can also vary a lot based on the location, your experience, the setting, and supply/demand. There are experienced PTs working home health jobs in Nevada making $120,000/year or more. There are also new grad PTs looking at outpatient jobs in North Carolina where they’re getting offers of $60,000/year or less.

Obviously these situations are relatively extreme, but you can easily see that the PT making twice as much wouldn’t think leaving a perm job to travel, just for the money, is as worth it financially as the PT making a salary on the low end. When trying to determine if traveling makes sense for you, it’s vital to do some research to determine how much you’d make back home at a permanent position vs. pursuing travel contracts (or compare to your current position if you’re already working).

How Much Higher Will Your Costs be as a Travel Physical Therapist?

When comparing finances between travel jobs and permanent positions, it’s really more about how much you can save than just how much you can make, since travelers have higher expenses to take into account. How much higher your expenses will be as a traveler will depend on where your permanent home is (your tax home) and what your expenses are at your tax home, plus how much short term housing costs in the area where you’re considering taking a travel contract.

For us personally, our tax home is in a pretty low cost of living area in Virginia, plus we “house hack” to reduce how much it costs us each month to maintain our home residence, but not every traveler is so lucky.

If, for example, you’re currently living in a high cost of living area with an expensive mortgage on a house that you don’t plan to sell, then your costs are going to be much higher maintaining that tax home than mine will be. Travel physical therapy won’t make as much sense for you financially since a portion of the extra money you make will go toward the housing expense back home. But, you have options and can consider improving your fixed expenses via house hacking and other strategies.

Short Term Housing Can be Expensive

Where you plan to travel and the cost of the short term housing in that area is important to consider as well. Usually pay is better in higher cost of living areas which can help to offset some of the costs. However, that’s certainly not always the case, especially in more desirable areas like Denver, Austin, San Diego, and Seattle. Often jobs in those areas are very sought after, which means they don’t pay very well, and then on top of that the short term housing prices can be extremely high, making it not a great financial choice. (In these cases, therapists are often choosing these areas for the experience even though they may not come out ahead financially).

Personally, most of our short term housing costs at our Travel PT locations have been in the $700-$1,000/month range, but we typically travel to lower cost of living areas. We know travelers that have taken jobs in cities like San Francisco where one bedroom furnished apartments rent for well over $2,500+ per month for short term leases. Our costs were higher when we took contracts in Hawaii ($1800/mo) and Alaska ($2400/mo), but again these contracts were more about the experience for us than making and saving the most.

There are other expenses that are higher as a traveler as well, but to a lesser degree than housing. As a traveler you can expect to spend more money on gas when driving from assignment to assignment and likely more on food since cooking at home isn’t always as easy depending on the kitchen set up at the housing your choose while on assignment. You also need to take into account wear and tear on your car from the extra mileage.

How Much Time Will You Take off Between PT Contracts?

As a traveler you do receive benefits through the travel companies that you work with while on assignment, but those benefits don’t include vacation time or PTO. That means that any time that you take off between travel physical therapy assignments will directly reduce how much you’ll earn over the course of a year. Most travel PTs take at least 4 weeks off per year (on average, one week between each contract) but it’s not uncommon for travelers to take several weeks off between jobs to spend time at home, travel for leisure within the US, or travel internationally.

In fact, the flexibility to take as much time off as we want is the reason that Whitney and I have been traveling for over 7 years now. Although all travelers enjoy this perk, it comes with the downside of reduced income over the course of a year. So depending on how much time you plan to take off between contracts can make a big difference in how much you make annually and how much you come out ahead financially as a travel physical therapist.

It’s Not Always About the Finances

As you can see, there are many factors that will determine whether travel physical therapy will be worth it for you financially. All of these factors are unique to you, so you have to judge for yourself based on your own circumstances.

For Whitney and I, working as Travel PTs put us in an amazing financial position very quickly, and I was actually able to semi-retire after only a little over 3 years working full time as a travel physical therapist. We actually encourage many PTs, especially new grads, to consider doing something similar with their own version of semi-retirement.

With all of that being said, there are other advantages to travel physical therapy that go beyond the finances. Traveling is a great way to try out different settings, explore new areas of the country, make new friends, check items off of your bucket list, and learn from a variety of different clinicians. Initially we thought our only reason for traveling was to save money and pay off student debt, but, to our surprise, the best aspects of Travel PT ended up being the flexibility and adventures that we were able to have both while on contract and between contracts. After 7 years as travelers, we’ve been to all 50 states, visited almost all of the US National Parks, and traveled to over 35 countries internationally while taking time off between contracts. Honestly, those experiences have been priceless and would have been worth it even if we didn’t come out ahead financially compared to working permanent PT jobs.

Is Travel Therapy Right for You?

If you are trying to decide if travel physical therapy is right for you, our free Travel Therapy 101 series is a great place to start learning about the basics. We’ve mentored thousands of new Travel PTs over the years, with one of the most important services we provide being helping travelers get connected with great recruiters and travel companies. If you’d like recommendations based on your personal situation and preferences, fill out our recruiter recommendation form to get connected.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into travel therapy and get a step-by-step guide on not only getting started but being financially successful as a travel physical therapist, our comprehensive travel therapy course is the perfect thing for you. If you have an questions about Travel PT that we haven’t covered in our articles and videos, feel free to contact us! Best of luck on your travel physical therapy journey!

Additional Resources

• How Much Money Do Travel Therapists Make? The Comprehensive Guide to Travel Therapy Pay
• Focusing on Savings Rate instead of Only the Highest Pay as a Travel Therapist
• Negotiating Pay on a Travel Therapy Contract