Physical Therapist Assistant Salary in Maryland 2026,
$77,670 Median | BLS Data by City

Maryland physical therapist assistants earn a median $77,670 a year, or $37.34 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $39,260 at the 10th percentile to $91,570 at the 90th. That is 13.6% above the national median of $68,380 — one of the stronger PTA positions in the country. The very low 10th percentile is an annualisation artefact from part-time and per-visit work, not an entry salary.

Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, at $79,250, then Lexington Park $76,530 and Salisbury $75,370, with Hagerstown-Martinsburg well behind at $65,980. That last metro straddles the West Virginia line and reflects a different regional wage base, so it is best read as a boundary market rather than as Maryland's floor. BLS publishes only these areas for this occupation in Maryland, which is itself a sign of how small the state's PTA workforce is.

Yes, without exception. The Maryland Board of Physical Therapy Examiners licenses physical therapist assistants, requiring graduation from a CAPTE-accredited PTA programme, a passing score on the National Physical Therapy Examination for PTAs, and the board's jurisprudence requirement, with practice under a licensed physical therapist's supervision. There is no on-the-job route into the role.

More than a single state rate suggests. Maryland's progressive state income tax reaches 5.75%, and every county plus Baltimore City levies its own income tax on top, typically between 2.25% and 3.2%, based on where you live. On a $77,670 salary that combined layer is a meaningful deduction and it partly offsets the state's 13.6% premium over the national median — worth modelling against your actual county rather than assuming.

A location quotient of 0.72 on 1,430 jobs means Maryland uses PTAs well below the national rate. The state's rehabilitation providers lean more heavily on licensed physical therapists, particularly in the academic and hospital-dominated Baltimore–Washington corridor. Fewer delegated posts, filled competitively, is exactly the condition that produces above-national pay on a below-national headcount.

Because the state buys few of them and competes for those it does. A location quotient of 0.72 with pay 13.6% above the national median is the mirror of Pennsylvania's physician assistant row, where abundant supply meets abundant employment and the wage sits below national. Maryland's rehabilitation sector — dominated by academic medical centres, a dense hospital network and a high-cost labour market — has historically staffed more heavily with licensed physical therapists. Where a Maryland employer does deploy a PTA, it is competing for a small pool in an expensive region, and the wage reflects that.

The metro coverage is thin and the bottom of the band is a schedule artefact. BLS publishes only Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Lexington Park, Salisbury and Hagerstown-Martinsburg for this occupation in Maryland, and Lexington Park and Salisbury are small areas whose estimates rest on limited samples. The $39,260 tenth percentile, meanwhile, reflects part-time and per-visit work annualised as full-year employment rather than any junior pay grade — the hourly median of $37.34 is the number to use for partial schedules.

Maryland is the only state that sets hospital rates for all payers, operating under a federal agreement that puts its hospitals on global budgets rather than on fee-for-service payer mix. One practical consequence is that Maryland hospitals face a strong incentive to manage total cost of care and to avoid readmissions, which raises the value of post-acute and home-based rehabilitation that keeps patients out of hospital. For a PTA that shows up as demand concentrated in home health and skilled nursing — the settings at the $84,080 seventy-fifth percentile — rather than in hospital-based outpatient departments.