Physical Therapist Salary in San Diego, CA 2026,
$113,850 Median | BLS + Market Data

San Diego physical therapists earn a BLS MSA median of $113,850/yr, or $54.74/hr, with a published metro range of $77,500 to $158,700. That is 10.8% above the national figure and 8.3% below the California statewide median. Home health tops the local band; outpatient orthopaedic clinics anchor the lower quartile.

Yes — San Diego runs about 5% ahead of Los Angeles at the median, and its gap below the California statewide figure is several points narrower. The difference is setting mix: San Diego has proportionally less outpatient clinic employment and more hospital and rehabilitation work.

Home health and travel contracts at the $158,700 top of the published band, followed by skilled nursing and inpatient rehabilitation around $133,860. Outpatient orthopaedic and sports clinics sit near the $96,820 lower quartile, so setting choice is worth more than a decade of experience within one setting.

A California physical therapist licence from the Physical Therapy Board of California, Department of Consumer Affairs — a DPT from a CAPTE-accredited programme, the National Physical Therapy Examination, the California law examination and continuing competency at renewal. The licence is statewide, not city-issued.

The rate is solid, the setting mix is broad, and the region's rehabilitation caseload — including a substantial military-adjacent population — supports steady demand. The constraint is the number of large employers relative to Los Angeles, which makes moving between organisations for a raise harder than moving between settings.

The two metros pay similar top-end rates, so the difference in medians comes from employment mix. Los Angeles's outpatient orthopaedic clinic sector is proportionally much larger, and outpatient work reimburses at the bottom of the range. San Diego's more even split between hospital, rehabilitation and outpatient settings lifts the middle of its distribution and puts it about 5% ahead at the median.

Federal employment at military treatment facilities in the region runs on separate pay schedules handled differently from private employment, so the local employer mix is broader than the band implies. Benefits and productivity bonuses are excluded, and they are the main reason a $158,700 contract figure is not directly comparable to a salaried one.

In a metro with a limited number of large employers, a therapist's practical route upward is to change setting rather than organisation. San Diego therapists who move from outpatient into home health or inpatient rehabilitation gain far more than they would from seniority, and because the licence is identical across settings, that move requires no new credential — only a willingness to change caseload type.