Physical Therapist Assistant Salary in Arkansas 2026,
$64,520 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $64,520 a year, or $31.02 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $49,140 and $78,680 and a full range of $31,540 to $85,280. That is 5.6% below the $68,380 national median, and the state's 75th percentile clears the national median by more than ten thousand dollars.

Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers at $73,100, by a wide margin — nearly nine thousand dollars above the state median and clear of the national median too. Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway at $64,110, Hot Springs at $63,280, Fort Smith at $63,210 and Jonesboro at $62,700 are closely bunched about ten thousand dollars behind.

Through the Arkansas State Board of Physical Therapy. You need graduation from a CAPTE-accredited PTA programme and a passing score on the National Physical Therapy Examination for assistants, plus continuing education for renewal. You practise under the direction and supervision of a licensed physical therapist, and the board's rules set how much of that supervision must be on-site — which affects which settings can employ you.

A location quotient of 1.72 — more than one and a half times the national rate per worker — reflects a rehabilitation delivery model built around assistants working under therapist direction, particularly in skilled nursing and home health serving a dispersed rural population. Arkansas's physical therapist concentration is also above the national average, so this is not substitution for scarce therapists so much as a rehabilitation sector that is large relative to the state's size.

Hours, not rate. It sits more than seventeen thousand dollars below the 25th percentile of $49,140 — a step far larger than any other in the band, and the signature of part-time and per-visit workers being counted in an annual wage series. Home health work paid per visit is often part-time by design. A full-time Arkansas physical therapist assistant should read the $49,140 to $78,680 range as the realistic market.

The same regional wage floor that lifts every occupation in that corner of the state, plus a rehabilitation market serving a growing and comparatively affluent population. At $73,100, Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers pays physical therapist assistants above the national median — which means a PTA there is not in a below-national market at all. Against Jonesboro at $62,700, that is more than ten thousand dollars for the same licence under the same board rules, and north-west Arkansas housing costs, while higher than Jonesboro's, do not come close to absorbing it. For a PTA whose location is flexible, this is the clearest single financial decision on the page.

The published floor is a schedule rather than a wage — the $31,540 tenth percentile reflects part-time and per-visit work, and including it makes the band look far wider than the full-time market is. Beyond that, the figure blends outpatient orthopaedic, skilled nursing, home health and school-based practice, which pay quite differently, and it excludes the per-visit and productivity arrangements common in home health that account for much of the upper band. The $31.02 hourly median is the cleaner benchmark.

Location and setting, and both are large levers here. North-west Arkansas at $73,100 against the rest of the state is worth about ten thousand dollars. Home health and skilled nursing pay above general outpatient work and occupy the $78,680 seventy-fifth percentile and the $85,280 ninetieth — and home health per-visit arrangements can exceed that for a full caseload. Lead and rehabilitation coordinator roles add responsibility pay. For a bigger step, a CAPTE-accredited doctor of physical therapy programme leads to a band whose Arkansas median is well above this one.