Travel OTs and travel PTs have the same median weekly package. Not close — the same, as the discipline table on our Pay Index shows whenever you check it. If you came here to find out which discipline pays more in travel therapy, the honest answer is neither, and the more useful comparison is about how many contracts exist and how quickly you can get licensed to take them.
Those two differences are large. There are several times as many travel PT contracts as OT contracts, and the PT Compact covers a large majority of states while the OT Compact is still live in only a handful. Neither of those shows up in a pay comparison, and both matter more than the pay. Current issuing status for every state and both compacts is on our License Lookup tool, which is where to check it rather than trusting a count written into an article.
Pay: Effectively Identical
The Pay Index lists the median weekly gross package for PT and OT side by side, with the number of contracts behind each. The two medians land on the same figure.
The medians match. What separation exists shows up only at the very top of each range, is small, and rests on a much thinner OT sample — so it is not something to plan a career around.
This surprises people, because the perception that PT pays more is widespread. In permanent employment there is often a modest gap. In the travel market there is not, and the reason is that travel rates are set by how hard a specific role is to fill in a specific building, and a hard-to-fill OT role is exactly as expensive as a hard-to-fill PT role.
The assistants track the same pattern. PTAs and COTAs share a median weekly package too, so the parity between the physical-therapy and occupational-therapy sides holds at both credential levels — see our travel PTA and COTA pay breakdown for the full assistant picture.
Volume: The Real Difference
Several times more PT contracts than OT contracts, in the same period and from the same feed. That ratio is the single most practical difference between the two travel careers, and it shows up in daily life as:
- Selection. A travel PT scanning open assignments in a given week sees more options in more states. A travel OT sees fewer, and is more likely to face a real trade-off between location and setting.
- Timing. More contracts means more contracts starting every week, which means shorter gaps between assignments and more freedom to decline a mediocre offer.
- Geographic reach. A PT can often find something in a specific target city. An OT more often has to choose the region and take what is available in it.
None of this makes travel OT a bad career. It makes it one that rewards planning further ahead. The OTs who do best in travel tend to be the ones who start looking six to eight weeks before their current contract ends, rather than three.
It also changes what leverage looks like. A travel PT who declines a contract is one of several candidates the recruiter can put forward, and another assignment will surface within days. A travel OT who declines may wait weeks for a comparable one — but by the same logic, the facility that needs an OT has fewer people to call. The scarcity cuts both ways, and OTs consistently underuse it. If you are the only qualified applicant for a role a building has been trying to fill for six weeks, that is a stronger position than the contract volume suggests.
One more consequence worth naming: because there are fewer OT contracts, the ones that exist are less likely to be clustered in the same handful of metro areas. Travel OTs end up in smaller markets more often than travel PTs do. Some people consider that the best part of the job and some consider it the cost of it, but it is worth knowing before the first assignment rather than discovering it on arrival.
Setting Mix
Both disciplines are concentrated in skilled nursing, which is where the great majority of travel therapy volume sits for everyone.
The Pay Index publishes the median by setting with the contract count beside each row, and omits any row too thin to stand up.
The pattern worth taking from it is that the two disciplines stay close within each setting, and that the OT cells outside skilled nursing rest on very few contracts. That is why the count is printed next to every figure, and why cells too thin to trust are left out rather than shown — an OT setting median built on a handful of contracts is not a market rate.
Licensing: The Biggest Gap
This is where the two disciplines genuinely diverge, and it is currently a large advantage for PT.
PT Compact: the large majority of states
The PT Compact is mature, and covers the large majority of states. A PT or PTA whose home license is in an issuing member state can obtain practice privileges in other issuing states, typically processed in two to seven business days rather than the four to ten weeks a full state license takes. For a traveler, that is the difference between accepting a contract that starts in three weeks and declining it. Details in our PT Compact guide.
OT Compact: live, but only in a handful of states
The OT Compact is operational but early: only a small group of states is actively issuing OT Compact privileges, and the License Lookup tool names them as the list changes. Many more states have enacted the compact, but enacted and issuing are different things — a state cannot issue or receive privileges until it completes its integration with the compact's data platform.
The practical consequence: a travel OT whose home license is in one of the issuing states has a fast-move radius covering the others, and no more. Everyone else is filing traditional state license applications with traditional timelines. Our OT Compact 2026 guide covers eligibility and the application process, and the License Lookup tool shows current status by state for both compacts.
The gap is closing — the OT Compact went from no issuing states at all to a working roster inside about eighteen months — but it is real today and it should factor into where an OT chooses to hold a home license.
Methodology. Pay figures are computed from ProTherapy contracts after de-duplication; the Pay Index states the contract count behind each row and the month it was built. "Package" is the total weekly gross package — taxable wages plus non-taxable stipends. Rows computed from too few contracts are omitted rather than published. These are our own placements, not an industry survey. Compact issuing status changes as states complete onboarding, so check the License Lookup tool rather than planning around a count in an article. Full tables on the Pay Index.
So Which One?
If you are already an OT or already a PT, this comparison should not make you regret your degree — the money is the same and the clinical work is the reason you chose it. What it should change is how you plan.
If you are a travel OT: start your search earlier than your PT colleagues do, be more flexible on geography than on setting, and pay close attention to where you hold your home license. If you have a genuine choice about your home state, holding it in one of the OT Compact issuing states is worth real money in reduced friction over a travel career.
If you are a travel PT: your advantage is optionality, and the most common mistake is not using it. With the larger contract pool and the broader compact behind you, there is very little reason to accept a below-median package or a facility you have reservations about.
For students still choosing, the pay data should be close to irrelevant to the decision — the same median either way. Choose the clinical work. Then plan around the volume and licensing differences once you are in it.
Compare Real Rates by State
Medians for PT, PTA, OT, COTA, and SLP — with the contract counts shown.
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