Employment

• About 11,230 physical therapists worked in Texas in 2009 of the approximately 174,490 employed nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of August 31, 2010, the number of actively licensed physical therapists in Texas was 11,599, notes the Texas Executive Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Examiners. In 2009, an estimated 2,220 physical therapists worked in the greater Houston area, including Sugar Land and Baytown, according to the BLS data. The bureau does not include self-employed physical therapists in its employment figures.
  
  

Averages

• Physical therapists in Texas had an average salary of $39.91 per hour as of May 2009, or $83,020 per year, according to the BLS. The average salary in Houston was $38.52 per hour, or $80,110 per year -- about 4 percent lower than the statewide average. Both figures were higher than the nationwide average for this occupation of $76,220 per year.
  
  

Salary Range

• The middle 50 percent of Houston physical therapists were earning $32.32 to $43.09 per hour in 2009, or $67,230 to $89,630 per year. The bottom 10 percent were making $57,020 and less and the top 10 percent had salaries at or above $113,650 per year. The statewide salary range was wider, with the bottom 10 percent of Texas physical therapists making $52,710 and less, and the top 10 percent earning $121,860 annually and more.
  
  

Comparisons

• Texas had two of the top four highest-paying metropolitan areas in the country for physical therapists in 2009. Ranking second was the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission region, where physical therapists had an average annual salary of $111,790 per year. Ranking fourth was El Paso, with an average annual pay rate of $95,370. Jackson in Michigan was first, with an average salary for physical therapists of $144,730 per year, and the greater San Francisco area was third, at $95,500. Areas in Texas with the most similar average salaries to that of Houston for physical therapists were the north central nonmetropolitan area of the state at $79,740 per year and Waco at $80,940 per year.