Physical Therapist Salary in Illinois: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A physical therapist in Illinois earns a median of $105,250 a year, or about $50.60 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most PTs in the state land between $83,000 at the 10th percentile and $140,410 at the 90th. That median sits a touch above the national figure, and Illinois taxes the income at a flat rate, which shapes your real take-home.

How Illinois compares to the national median

Illinois pays physical therapists a little better than the country as a whole. The state median of $105,250 runs $2,490 above the national median of $102,760 reported by the BLS for 2025. That’s a modest edge, but it holds up because Illinois has a deep healthcare market anchored by Chicago, a string of academic medical centers, and a steady demand for rehab care across hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing, and home health.

The mean (average) salary in Illinois is $109,080, which sits higher than the median. When the average pulls above the midpoint like that, it tells you the top of the pay range stretches further than the bottom. In practice, a smaller group of senior and specialized therapists at the high end is lifting the average, while the typical PT still earns the $105,250 median. The full Illinois spread runs from $83,000 at the 10th percentile up to $140,410 at the 90th, a gap of $57,410 between the lowest-paid and highest-paid tenth of the field.

About 9,800 physical therapists work in Illinois, per BLS employment estimates. That’s a sizable workforce, and it means you’ll find openings in most corners of the state, not just the Chicago metro.

One way to read the national gap is in monthly terms. The $2,490 annual edge Illinois holds over the national median of $102,760 works out to roughly $208 more a month in gross pay before tax. That’s not life-changing on its own, but it stacks on top of a flat state tax structure that’s simpler to plan around than the bracketed systems in many neighboring states. The bigger story in the comparison isn’t the median at all. It’s the width of the Illinois range. With the 25th percentile at $95,940 and the 75th at $122,920, the middle half of Illinois PTs earn somewhere inside a $26,980 band, and the extremes stretch the full $57,410 from the 10th to the 90th. Where you land in that spread depends far more on your experience, setting, and metro than on the fact that you’re in Illinois rather than another state.

Physical therapist pay in Illinois by experience

Experience is the single biggest lever on PT pay in Illinois. A new graduate fresh out of a Doctor of Physical Therapy program starts near the bottom of the range, while a therapist with a decade of clinical work, a specialty certification, or a lead or management role earns far more. The percentiles below are the cleanest proxy the BLS gives us for that career arc.

Read that table as a career path. A new PT in Illinois can reasonably expect to start around $83,000 to $95,940 in their first couple of years. Cross into the mid-career band and you’re at the $105,250 median. The jump from median to experienced is worth $17,670 a year, and going from experienced to the senior tier adds another $17,490. The move from entry to senior is the headline: $57,410 in extra annual pay over a career, before you factor in any of the levers in the how-to-earn-more section below.

Two things speed up that climb in Illinois. The first is specialization. Board-certified specialists in orthopedics, neurology, or geriatrics command higher rates and tend to cluster in the upper percentiles. The second is setting. Home health and skilled nursing facilities often pay above outpatient clinic rates to offset travel and caseload demands, which can pull an early-career therapist toward the $95,940 to $122,920 band faster than a clinic job alone would.

It helps to put dollar figures on each step of the climb. Moving from the 10th percentile to the 25th is worth $12,940 a year, the largest single jump in proportional terms because it usually reflects nothing more than getting past the first year or two of practice. From the 25th to the median adds $9,310. From the median to the 75th adds $17,670, and that’s where the work gets harder: clearing it generally takes a specialty certification, a higher-paying setting, or supervisory duties rather than just tenure. The final step from the 75th to the 90th is worth $17,490 and tends to require a genuine differentiator, whether that’s running a clinic, holding a sought-after specialty, or stacking per-diem income on top of a salaried role.

In hourly terms, the same arc runs from about $39.90 an hour at entry to roughly $67.50 an hour at the senior end, with the $50.60 median sitting in the middle. For a therapist deciding whether to chase salaried work or per-diem coverage, those hourly figures are the baseline to negotiate against. A PRN rate below the $50.60 median for your experience level is a signal to push back, since per-diem work usually carries a premium to compensate for the lack of benefits.

Physical therapist salary by Illinois metro

Where you work inside Illinois moves the number more than people expect. The Chicago metro holds the vast majority of PT jobs, but it isn’t the top payer in the state. Springfield posts the highest metro median in the BLS data, while the smaller downstate and central markets sit below the Chicago line.

Springfield leads at $115,990, which is $10,270 above the Chicago metro median of $105,720 and $10,740 above the statewide median. That premium likely reflects the city’s role as a regional medical hub with state government and hospital employers competing for a small pool of therapists. With only about 150 PT jobs there, though, openings are limited.

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is the engine of the state’s PT employment, with 7,880 of Illinois’s roughly 9,800 jobs. Its median of $105,720 is essentially the statewide figure, which makes sense given how much weight the metro carries. The downside is cost of living: a $105,720 median in Chicago doesn’t stretch as far as the same salary in Peoria or Champaign-Urbana, where housing runs cheaper even though the headline pay is lower at $98,860 and $97,840 respectively. Rockford lands in between at $101,340. The takeaway is to read metro pay alongside local housing, not in isolation.

The spread between the highest and lowest metro median is worth spelling out. Springfield at $115,990 and Champaign-Urbana at $97,840 are $18,150 apart, which is a wider gap than the difference between the Illinois median and the national one. That’s a useful reminder that for a physical therapist, the metro you choose inside the state can matter more than the state line itself. Champaign-Urbana, the lowest payer at $97,840, sits $7,410 below the statewide median, while Peoria at $98,860 is $6,390 below it. Both are university and medical towns with lower housing costs, so the real spending power can be closer to Chicago’s than the raw pay suggests.

Employment concentration is the other thing to weigh. Outside Chicago’s 7,880 jobs, the metros are small: Peoria has about 300 PT positions, Rockford 190, Springfield 150, and Champaign-Urbana 140. If you want maximum choice of employer and setting, Chicago is the obvious base. If you’ll trade job density for a higher median and cheaper housing, Springfield is the standout, but you’ll be competing for a thin pool of roughly 150 roles.

Take-home pay after tax in Illinois

Gross salary is only half the story. Illinois charges a flat 4.95% state income tax on top of federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare). The table below shows estimated take-home at each percentile point for a single filer using the standard deduction, drawn from the figures in our data for the 2026 tax year.

At the median, a physical therapist in Illinois keeps $77,220 of a $105,250 salary, an effective combined tax rate of 26.6%. That works out to $6,435 a month. The entry-level effective rate is lower at 24.5%, and it climbs to 28.9% at the senior level as more income falls into higher federal brackets. The Illinois portion stays proportional thanks to the flat rate, so the state tax line grows steadily from $4,108 at entry to $6,950 at the senior tier.

Look at how the take-home grows across the percentiles and you can see how much of a raise actually reaches your bank account. Going from the median to the experienced tier raises gross pay by $17,670, but net annual climbs by $11,464, from $77,220 to $88,684. The rest goes to federal tax, FICA, and the state’s flat rate. From the experienced level to the senior tier, gross rises $17,490 while net rises $11,089, from $88,684 to $99,773. In rough terms, once you’re past the median you keep about 63 to 65 cents of each additional dollar in Illinois. That ratio is worth knowing before you negotiate, because a $10,000 raise on paper is closer to $6,400 in your pocket.

On a monthly basis the ladder runs from $5,222 at entry to $6,435 at the median, $7,390 at the experienced level, and $8,314 at the senior tier. The difference between an entry PT and a senior one is $3,092 a month in spendable income, which is the figure that actually pays a mortgage or builds savings, not the $57,410 gross gap.

The cross-state comparison that matters: Illinois taxes income, and Texas does not. Take the Illinois median PT salary and run it through both states. In Illinois, the net is $77,220. In Texas, the same gross leaves a net of $82,429 because there’s no state income tax to pay. That’s a gap of $5,209 a year that a Texas physical therapist keeps and an Illinois one doesn’t, purely from state tax policy. Before you read that as a reason to move, remember the next sentence.

Net pay minus local housing is the number that actually matters. A $5,209 tax gap can evaporate fast if the lower-tax state has pricier housing, or it can widen if it’s cheaper. Compare your real net against what rent or a mortgage costs in the specific metro you’re targeting, not the state average. To see your own numbers, run them through the Illinois paycheck calculator, and if you want help modeling deductions and a self-employed or travel-PT side income, TurboTax walks through the filing details.

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How to earn more as a physical therapist in Illinois

The percentile gaps above are the prize. Moving from the Illinois median of $105,250 to the 75th percentile is worth $17,670 a year, and reaching the 90th adds $35,160 over the median. Here’s how PTs in the state actually close that distance.

• Earn a board specialty certification. The American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties offers credentials in orthopedics (OCS), neurology (NCS), geriatrics (GCS), and more. Specialists concentrate in the upper percentiles and can justify higher billing rates with employers.
• Target the higher-paying metros. If you’re mobile, Springfield’s $115,990 median sits $10,740 above the statewide figure. Even within Chicago, hospital systems and academic centers tend to pay above small outpatient clinics.
• Move into home health or skilled nursing. These settings frequently pay above outpatient clinic rates and can lift an early-career PT toward the $95,940 to $122,920 band faster.
• Take on lead, clinical-coordinator, or management duties. Supervising a clinic or a team adds responsibility pay that pushes you past the $105,250 median.
• Add per-diem or PRN shifts. Picking up extra coverage at a second employer is one of the fastest ways to raise total earnings without changing your main job.
• Keep skills current with continuing education. Coursework in dry needling, vestibular rehab, or pelvic health opens higher-paying niches. Online options through Coursera can supplement clinical CE toward those specialties.

Job outlook for physical therapists in Illinois

Illinois employs roughly 9,800 physical therapists, and demand is structurally strong. An aging population, the long tail of orthopedic and post-surgical rehab, and the push to keep people mobile and out of hospitals all feed steady caseloads. Physical therapy is also hard to automate, which protects the role over the long run. The bulk of openings sit in the Chicago metro, but downstate hospital systems and rural home-health agencies often struggle to fill positions, which can mean bargaining power on pay and signing incentives for therapists willing to work outside the city. To see what’s currently open across the state, browse listings on ZipRecruiter.

Related and higher-paying roles in Illinois

If you’re weighing physical therapy against nearby healthcare careers in Illinois, here’s how the pay stacks up against the PT median of $105,250, using BLS state medians.

An occupational therapist in Illinois earns a median of $99,700, which is $5,550 less than a physical therapist in the state. A registered nurse earns a median of $95,990, or $9,260 less than a PT in Illinois. Both are solid careers, but physical therapy carries a pay edge over each of them at the state median.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 (occupation 29-1123, Illinois and metro estimates); take-home figures modeled for the 2026 tax year using federal brackets, FICA, and Illinois’s flat state income tax. Last updated 2026. See our methodology.