Physical Therapist Assistant Salary in Houston, TX 2026,
$77,280 Median | BLS + Market Data

Houston physical therapist assistants earn a BLS median of $77,280/yr, or $37.15 an hour, across the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro, with a published band from $42,480 to $101,290. That is 13.0% above the US median for the occupation, with no state income tax applied. BLS counts 2,210 PTAs in the metro.

Marginally below — the metro sits 0.9% under the Texas statewide figure, which is unusual and reflects how strong PTA demand is across the whole state, including smaller markets with acute post-acute staffing needs. Among peer metros Houston sits below Los Angeles at $82,140, Dallas at $80,370, and above San Antonio at $76,830, Atlanta at $74,730 and Miami at $72,530.

Home health and skilled nursing, by a clear margin. Home health assistants are frequently paid per visit, so a well-organised caseload in a compact territory produces earnings that outpatient clinic work cannot match — this is what pushes the top of the band to $101,290. Skilled nursing pays strong salaried rates for the same underlying reason: Medicare episode reimbursement funds the therapy and facilities compete for staff. Outpatient orthopaedic clinics, where most assistants start, sit around the median.

Through the Texas Board of Physical Therapy Examiners, which operates under the Executive Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Examiners and licenses statewide. The route requires an associate degree from an accredited physical therapist assistant programme, passage of the national examination for assistants, and a Texas jurisprudence assessment. Practice is always under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist. Houston issues no separate credential, and Texas participates in the physical therapy licensure compact.

It is one of the better returns on a two-year credential available in this metro. The median sits 13.0% above the national figure, the band reaches six figures for those who move into home health, there is no state income tax, and projected growth of 22% is exceptional. The realistic caveats are physical demands, documentation load, and a ceiling — the profession does not progress much beyond the top of this band without bridging to physical therapy, which requires a doctoral degree and effectively starting the education over.

Three things line up. Demand for post-acute rehabilitation is rising quickly with an ageing population and a fast-growing regional one. Physical therapists are expensive and in limited supply, so employers use assistants under supervision to deliver a large share of treatment. And the reimbursement that funds home health and skilled nursing is set nationally, not adjusted downward for a moderate-cost metro. The result is an occupation where the wage is high relative to the training required and to local living costs — an unusual combination, and the reason the field has grown so fast here.

Per-visit pay is what puts the top of this band above $100,000, and it deserves clear-eyed treatment. Income depends on visit volume, which depends on referrals, patient availability and how tightly a territory is clustered — in a metro as spread out as this one, drive time is the enemy. Documentation time is generally unpaid or built into the visit rate. And a slow week is a low-income week. Assistants who thrive on it treat territory negotiation and scheduling discipline as core professional skills; those who do not usually return to salaried work.

A physical therapist assistant works under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist, who performs the evaluation, sets the plan of care and reassesses. That is not a formality: it determines what an assistant may do, how much autonomy they have day to day, and how their caseload is constructed. In practice the quality of that relationship is the largest non-financial variable in a PTA post. Assistants in this metro considering a move should ask specifically about supervision arrangements, caseload assignment and how reassessments are scheduled, because those determine both the work and the sustainable visit volume.