Physical Therapist Assistant Salary in Wisconsin 2026,
$64,080 Median | BLS Data by City

The published figure is $64,080 a year, or $30.81 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 for SOC 31-2021, with a band from $51,960 at the 10th percentile to $77,440 at the 90th. That is 6.3% below the national median of $68,380, and the middle half of Wisconsin assistants earn between $59,790 and $73,210.

Janesville-Beloit, at $69,900, well ahead of Milwaukee-Waukesha $65,630, Kenosha $64,940, Appleton $64,240 and Green Bay $63,590. A small southern Wisconsin market leading the table reflects competition for a portable licence against both Madison and the nearby Illinois labour market.

Yes. The Physical Therapy Examining Board within the Department of Safety and Professional Services licenses physical therapist assistants, requiring a CAPTE-accredited programme and the national examination for assistants. A licensed assistant practises under the direction and supervision of a licensed physical therapist, with supervision requirements set in state rule.

Yes — Wisconsin is a compact member and the compact covers physical therapist assistants as well as physical therapists. An assistant with an unencumbered licence in another compact state can obtain a privilege to practise in Wisconsin rather than filing a full second licensure application, which makes contract and travel assignments genuinely practical here.

It is among the fastest-growing occupations in the national projections, at 22% through 2034, with Wisconsin's share pro-rating to roughly 290 openings a year. On a base of only 1,650 jobs at a location quotient of 0.78 — below the national rate of concentration — that is a substantial demand signal for a small local workforce.

It converts a state licence into a regional one. Because Wisconsin is a Physical Therapy Licensure Compact member and the compact extends to assistants, a PTA licensed here can obtain privileges to work in other member states, and assistants from those states can obtain privileges to work here. The practical effects are three: contract and travel assignments become arrangeable without a months-long licensure process, employers in thin markets such as Janesville-Beloit can recruit from outside the state, and every resident assistant negotiating a rate has a credible alternative. That last effect is why a 6.3% below-national median does not translate into a weak bargaining position here.

It is straight-time and it treats settings with very different productivity expectations as one occupation. Per-visit home health and skilled-nursing contract work sit at the top of the Wisconsin distribution and account for much of the reach to the $73,210 seventy-fifth percentile and the $77,440 ninetieth, but they carry visit quotas and travel time that a salaried outpatient post does not. Comparing two Wisconsin offers on rate alone, without comparing expected caseload, is the most common mistake in this occupation.

Because the state employs assistants at below the national rate of concentration — a location quotient of 0.78 across 1,650 jobs — in a market where outpatient orthopaedics, the setting most assistants prefer, is well supplied by the state's CAPTE-accredited programmes. The premium in this occupation nationally comes from skilled nursing and home health under productivity models, and Wisconsin's version of that demand is concentrated in rural counties outside the published metros. That is also where the state's own pay premiums sit, which is why Janesville-Beloit at $69,900 leads and the larger metros do not.