I can't believe that a DPT will increase salaries while there are still bachelor's and master's PTs in the work force. Could you justify paying a new DPT grad more than a PT with 20+ years of experience?
PAs and NPs have a different role in health care. I don't think that is a good comparison. And yes, they make more than PTs, but much less than MDs. My mother is a psych NP and gets paid half of what a physician does for the same job. Many states do not require collaborative practice and NPs are able to act independently. NPs and PAs are often a way for clinics to save major $$.
I guess my point is that our designation as "doctors" does not mean that we should make more money than PAs and NPs. Different job, different reimbursement rates, different liability. If volume of education effected salary, than DPTs should make more than anyone with an MBA.
It's all very relative to the area.
My girlfriend is an Ortho PA. She makes $115k in Chicago, but of course her ortho attending makes $700k. So to say they "get paid half" depends entirely on the scope. Psych is not a high paying field. Her cousin's fiancee is an obg NP. She makes a lot less than her attending.
My sister is a PT also, and her fiancee is an Emergency PA. He makes about 115k in a rural town. Everything depends on the situation and the city.
With that being said, both my sister and I have said over the last few years that we wish we had gone to PA school. Way more autonomy, but with a catch(ill explain later). School length is about the same, and both have really good job demand. The income and profit sharing abilities of a PA are wayyyyy higher. Not to mention they are above us in the medical heirarchy, can start or stop their patients from coming to us, and I'll say for a fact my GF knows way more than me about ortho(but again, she's an ortho PA)(and im outpatient ortho).
The catch is that PA's have to work under an MD. now, for the most part, that's not a huge deal with say...how you treat a patient. It more comes down to the paperwork and leg work of the clinic. At her last ortho job, she worked with a really good surgeon. Turns out he was an dingus, she worked 90 hours a week on salary pay, and had to be available at all hours, even on vacation to answer patient calls and fill scripts. She came to her senses and found an ortho group that doesn't kill their PAs, for which I'm very happy! haha.
As the PA, she gets there an hour before the surgeon(think 6am), puts in all the orders for post surgery, starts the case and preps everything, makes the incisions, the surgeon walks in-does his thing, she closes him up, and they go to the next one. On clinic days, she sees the patient, takes history. Then she goes to next room while he walks in, decides plan of care, writes it on the pad, and makes a pile for her so she can spend the evening at our apartment dictating all of his notes(they routinely would see 75-90 patients on clinic days)(and reimbursement for orthos is about $200-275/visit). It's really a sweet gig for the surgeons to have PAs, because she makes good money, but it's a drop in the bucket for the amount of work the surgeon gets to bypass. And like I said, she has switched groups to a less money driven group so she works around 50 hours a week now and gets treated with respect. I know a lot of PAs at family clinics who put in crazy amounts of work too. I've found that PT is a much less pressure job and our patients look at us as ancillary.
Also, EVERYTHING depends on where you live. To the posters who work in rural areas or small towns like Iowa has who have $200k mortgages, that's all well and good. But the job market is way more saturated and tough in bigger cities, the taxes are much higher, and the cost of living is wayyyy higher. If you are in school and are thinking, well that will be manageable and I'll just live somewhere cheap. That's great. More power to you. But a lot of PTs come out in their mid 20s, are single, and want big city life-like Chicago where I am. I grew up in a town of ~75k people. I couldn never go back to that, even though PT demand is high and my parents have a 5br/3bath worth $100k. life is different, and it works for some people but not others. I originally said I'll stay in Phoenix for 5 years. I left after 1 because I couldn't stand it. The point is, you never know what is going to happen in life and it's irresponsible to think too far in advance with any amount of certainty. God will laugh at your plans haha.