Physical Therapist Salary in Tennessee 2026,
$100,140 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $100,140 a year, or $48.15 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025. The middle half falls between $80,930 and $111,140, with a full range of $67,280 to $127,500. That is 2.5% below the $102,760 national median — a small gap that Tennessee's absence of state income tax more than offsets in take-home terms.

Nashville at $103,380, the only Tennessee metro above the national median. Memphis follows at $100,000, then Chattanooga at $99,120, Kingsport-Bristol at $98,690 and Clarksville at $97,810. The spread of about five and a half thousand dollars is modest, so setting and employer type will usually move your pay more than the city does.

Yes. Tennessee participates in the Physical Therapy Licensure Compact, which lets a therapist holding a compact-eligible licence in another member state obtain compact privileges to practise in Tennessee without a full second licence. In a state that borders eight others that is genuinely useful, and it is one of the reasons Tennessee's rural clinics can staff with travel and contract therapists. Your primary licence still comes from the Tennessee Board of Physical Therapy.

Higher than the same salary almost anywhere on Tennessee's borders. There is no state income tax on earned income, so $100,140 faces federal tax and payroll deductions only. Against Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia or Kentucky that is a several-thousand-dollar annual difference on this income, and it is why the $2,620 gap to the national median overstates the real position.

Mostly from settings rather than titles. Home health and contract post-acute work in Tennessee pays on productivity and routinely runs above the employed outpatient rate, and travel assignments filling rural vacancies pay a premium on top. Beyond that, ABPTS board certification in orthopaedics, neurology or geriatrics and clinic or regional management are what push an employed therapist toward the $111,140 seventy-fifth percentile and past it.

Because two things stack. The median is only $2,620 below the national figure, which is already a narrow gap for a Southern state, and then Tennessee takes no income tax on it. Run the same salary through Georgia's or Virginia's income tax and the Tennessee therapist keeps several thousand more. Add housing costs that are well below the national average everywhere except central Nashville, and a therapist earning the Tennessee median is materially better off in real terms than one earning the national median in most states. The sales tax near 9.5% is the honest offset, but at a six-figure income it does not close the gap.

That Tennessee employs about fifteen per cent fewer physical therapists per worker than the country as a whole, spread across roughly 4,800 posts. That is not a sign of weak demand — it is a sign of unmet demand, and it shows up in practice as long waits for outpatient appointments in the smaller metros and persistent vacancies in rural clinics and skilled nursing facilities. With 10.9% national growth projected through 2034, the recruiting pressure in East and West Tennessee is likely to intensify rather than ease, which is where a new graduate willing to work outside Nashville has the most leverage.

Setting first. Home health, contract post-acute and travel work pay on a different basis from employed outpatient practice and account for much of the distance between the $100,140 median and the $127,500 ninetieth percentile. Geography second and weakly — Nashville at $103,380 against Clarksville at $97,810 is a smaller lever than most states offer. Then credentials: ABPTS specialty certification in orthopaedics, neurology or geriatrics, and clinic or regional leadership. Compact privileges are worth understanding if you want to work across the Tennessee border without a second full licence.