Physical Therapist Salary in Iowa 2026,
$97,560 Median | BLS Data by City

Iowa physical therapists earn a median $97,560 a year, or $46.90 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $73,780 at the 10th percentile to $120,730 at the 90th. That is 5.1% below the national median of $102,760. The band is asymmetric — the 25th percentile of $78,810 sits well below the median while the 75th of $106,070 is close above it — which reflects part-time and school-contract work at the lower end rather than a large gap in skill or seniority.

Sioux City, at $100,380, followed by Dubuque $99,840, Davenport-Moline-Rock Island $99,410, Des Moines-West Des Moines $97,790 and Waterloo-Cedar Falls $97,180. The ordering is the reverse of what most states show: Iowa's smaller markets pay a premium to attract a doctoral-level credential that gravitates toward the metros, and they do so on a much lower cost base. Note that Davenport-Moline-Rock Island crosses into Illinois, so its figure is not a pure Iowa number.

No. Iowa law provides for direct access, so a patient may be evaluated and treated by a licensed physical therapist without a physician referral, subject to the conditions set out in statute. That has a commercial dimension as well as a clinical one — an Iowa outpatient practice can build a patient base directly rather than depending entirely on referral relationships, which is part of why practice ownership features so prominently at the top of this wage band.

Well. Iowa now levies a flat individual income tax of 3.8%, replacing a graduated schedule that had reached 5.7%, and the saving is largest at the upper end of this band. Set that against Sioux City at $100,380 and Dubuque at $99,840 — both above the state median and above Des Moines — with housing costs far below the national average, and the after-tax position of an Iowa physical therapist compares favourably with higher-nominal-wage states.

The Iowa Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy, which regulates physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and occupational therapists together. Licensure requires a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from a CAPTE-accredited programme, a passing score on the National Physical Therapy Examination, and the board's jurisprudence requirement.

Recruitment economics. A newly qualified physical therapist carrying a doctoral degree has a nationally portable licence and, usually, a preference for a larger city. A hospital or outpatient group in Sioux City or Dubuque competing for that person cannot offer urban amenities, so it offers money — which is why those two publish $100,380 and $99,840 against the capital's $97,790. Des Moines, by contrast, attracts candidates on non-wage grounds and prices accordingly. The reader's opportunity is that Iowa's rural premium and Iowa's low housing costs point in the same direction, which is rare.

The lower quartile is a schedule artefact more than a pay-rate one. School-based physical therapy runs on an academic calendar, and part-time outpatient caseloads are common; OEWS annualises both as though they were full-year full-time work, which is what places the 10th percentile at $73,780 under a $97,560 median. Every therapist on this row holds the same doctoral credential and the same Iowa licence. The hourly figure of $46.90 is the fairer comparison for anyone working less than a full year.

Setting, productivity model and ownership. Home health and skilled nursing pay above outpatient orthopaedics in Iowa as elsewhere, generally on a per-visit basis that rewards volume and absorbs rural driving time. Board-certified clinical specialisation moves the base rate. And ownership is unusually accessible in a dispersed state with direct access — a single-clinic practice serving a small Iowa city is a viable business in a way it is not in a saturated metropolitan market, and that is what populates the $120,730 top of the band.