Physical Therapist Salary in Maryland 2026,
$106,890 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Maryland figure is $106,890 a year, or $51.39 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 4.0% above the national median of $102,760 — across a band from $79,990 at the 10th percentile to $138,630 at the 90th. The profession has a single doctoral entry route and a state licence, so the band reflects setting, specialisation and leadership rather than differing qualifications.

Lexington Park at $111,780, then Salisbury $107,290, Baltimore-Columbia-Towson $105,810 and Hagerstown-Martinsburg $100,620. Two smaller markets outpaying Baltimore is the pattern, and Lexington Park in particular reflects the federal installation economy of St Mary's County. Montgomery and Prince George's counties are reported in the Washington metropolitan area and do not appear here.

Yes, subject to the conditions the practice act sets. A patient may be evaluated and treated by a Maryland-licensed physical therapist without a physician referral, which changes how outpatient clinics operate — caseloads can be built directly rather than depending entirely on referral relationships. It also places more diagnostic responsibility on the therapist, since deciding when a presentation requires medical referral is part of practising under direct access.

Because of how the geography is defined. Montgomery and Prince George's counties — Maryland's most populous and among its highest-paid — sit inside the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan area, which OEWS reports separately from Maryland's own MSAs. They are included in the statewide Maryland figures but not in the metro rows, so the table here covers Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Lexington Park, Salisbury and Hagerstown-Martinsburg only. It is a reporting boundary rather than a data gap.

Setting first: home health and skilled nursing generally pay above outpatient orthopaedics, and travel contracts above both, which is most of the distance from the $96,880 twenty-fifth percentile to the $125,440 seventy-fifth. Then board specialisation in orthopaedics, neurology or geriatrics. Then productivity structure, since many Maryland employers pay on visit-based or productivity models that reward efficiency. And then clinical leadership or practice ownership, which is what the $138,630 ninetieth percentile describes.

Partly measurement and partly market. A location quotient of 0.83 counts therapists employed at Maryland establishments, and a substantial part of the state's therapy capacity — the outpatient clinics, hospital systems and home health agencies of Montgomery and Prince George's counties — is captured in the Washington metropolitan area's reporting rather than Maryland's own. Beyond that, the state's healthcare employment skews toward acute and academic medicine in Baltimore rather than the outpatient rehabilitation networks that employ therapists in volume.

Productivity-based compensation. A large share of Maryland outpatient and home health physical therapy is paid on visit-based or productivity structures rather than straight salary, so two therapists at the same reported annual figure may be working very different caseloads. Part-time and per-diem practice is also common in this profession and annualises awkwardly. And with the Washington-area counties reported elsewhere, the metro table describes a smaller and less representative slice of Maryland practice than it appears to.

Setting, first and most reliably — home health and skilled nursing above outpatient orthopaedics, with travel contracts above both. Then specialisation, since board certification in orthopaedics, neurology or geriatrics is recognised and separately valued by Maryland employers. Then productivity, given how much of the state's outpatient work is paid on visit-based models. Then direct-access practice building, which under Maryland's practice act lets a clinic generate its own caseload. And then leadership or ownership, which is where the top of the band sits.