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Physiotherapist salary in Ireland

Physiotherapy in the public health service has four graded scales, from staff grade through to manager. This page has every point of all four, and shows where they overlap.

The short answer

A newly qualified physiotherapist starts on €45,514 a year. After 16 years of service you reach the top of the scale on €65,068. Allowances for promoted posts and, for some teachers, qualifications are paid on top of these figures.

Starting salary
€45,514
about €3,090 a month take-home
Top of the scale
€65,068
about €3,917 a month take-home

Figures from Department of Health Circular 2/2026, effective 1 June 2026. Take-home is for a single person with standard credits, after income tax, USC, PRSI and ASC.

What point of the scale am I on?

This is where most salary pages get it wrong. Your point is not always the same as your years of service, because one of the two scales carries incremental skips. Pick your situation:

You are on point 1
€45,514

The full pay scale, every point

Physiotherapist (staff grade)

Thirteen ordinary points followed by a long service increment, one of the longer scales in the health service.

Point Gross / year Take-home / year Take-home / month
1€45,514€37,079€3,090
2€47,910€38,296€3,191
3€49,882€39,298€3,275
4€51,319€40,028€3,336
5€52,545€40,650€3,388
6€53,849€41,313€3,443
7€55,150€41,974€3,498
8€56,520€42,670€3,556
9€57,894€43,368€3,614
10€59,277€44,070€3,673
11€60,737€44,811€3,734
12€62,287€45,597€3,800
13€63,831€46,380€3,865
LSI€65,068€47,007€3,917

Take-home assumes a single person with the personal and employee tax credits, no other income, and ASC at Single Public Service Pension Scheme rates. Your main superannuation contribution is deducted separately and depends on your scheme.

Senior Physiotherapist

Nine points and no long service increment. It begins just €129 above where the staff grade scale finishes with its increment.

Point Gross / year Take-home / year Take-home / month
1€65,197€47,073€3,923
2€66,587€47,777€3,981
3€68,021€48,504€4,042
4€69,442€49,225€4,102
5€70,864€49,905€4,159
6€72,358€50,587€4,216
7€73,935€51,308€4,276
8€75,506€52,026€4,336
9€76,767€52,602€4,384

This scale is shared with other professions

Physiotherapist is not paid on a scale of its own. The figures above are identical, point for point, to those for occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians and podiatrists. On the same point of the same grade, all of them are paid exactly the same amount. The discipline changes the work and the qualification, not the money.

In the source document long service increments are marked only by being printed in bold. We identified them from the font rather than by counting points, because getting it wrong would change how long the scale takes to climb.

What you earn in each year of your career

On the staff grade scale you move up one point for each year of satisfactory service, with no skipped points. That means 16 years of service to reach the top.

Years of service Your point Gross salary
Year 1Point 1€45,514
Year 2Point 2€47,910
Year 3Point 3€49,882
Year 4Point 4€51,319
Year 5Point 5€52,545
Year 6Point 6€53,849
Year 7Point 7€55,150
Year 8Point 8€56,520
Year 9Point 9€57,894
Year 10Point 10€59,277
Year 11Point 11€60,737
Year 12Point 12€62,287
Year 13Point 13€63,831
Year 16Long Service Increment€65,068

Progression is automatic on your incremental date as long as your service is satisfactory. Time spent on a career break or otherwise out of service pushes your incremental date back. The Long Service Increment is not an annual increment: it is paid only after 3 years of satisfactory service at the maximum of the scale, which is why it appears 3 years after the last point rather than the year after it.

What comes off your salary

Four deductions apply before your pay reaches your account, and one of them is specific to the public service.

Income tax, USC and PRSI

The same as any employee. Income tax at 20% up to €44,000 for a single person and 40% above, USC in bands from 0.5% to 8%, and PRSI at 4.2%.

ASC, the public service extra

The Additional Superannuation Contribution. Nothing on the first €34,500, then 3.33% to €60,000 and 3.5% above for Single Scheme members. Pre-2013 scheme members pay 10% and 10.5% on the same bands. It reduces your income tax but not your USC or PRSI.

One thing to be aware of: the take-home figures on this page include ASC but not your main superannuation contribution, which is charged separately and depends on which pension scheme you joined. Your actual net pay will be somewhat lower. We show ASC because its rates are published and identical for everyone, while the main contribution varies.

Questions people ask most

How much does a physiotherapist earn in Ireland?
A staff grade physiotherapist starts on €45,514 and reaches €63,831 at the top of the ordinary scale, with a long service increment of €65,068. A Senior Physiotherapist runs from €65,197 to €76,767, a Clinical Specialist from €72,119 to €83,689, and a Physiotherapist Manager from €78,592 to €94,350. Figures are from the Health Sector Consolidated Salary Scales effective 1 June 2026.
What is the starting salary for a physiotherapist in Ireland?
€45,514 a year at point 1 of the staff grade scale. That is the public health service rate, which is national and identical in every HSE and Section 38 employer.
How long does it take to reach the top of the physiotherapy scale?
13 years to reach the top ordinary point of €63,831 on the staff grade scale, and the long service increment follows after 3 further years, so €65,068 arrives after 16 years in total. Progression beyond that means promotion to Senior rather than more increments.
How much does a senior physiotherapist earn?
Between €65,197 and €76,767 across nine points, with no long service increment. Worth noticing on promotion: the Senior scale starts just €129 above where the staff grade scale ends with its increment, so someone promoted at the very top of staff grade gains almost nothing on day one and everything from the years that follow.
What is the difference between a Senior and a Clinical Specialist physiotherapist?
Clinical Specialist is the more specialised route and pays more at the top, €83,689 against €76,767, but the two scales overlap heavily. Clinical Specialist starts at €72,119, which is around the sixth point of the Senior scale, so a long-serving Senior moving across needs careful placement to gain.
How much does a physiotherapy manager earn?
Between €78,592 and €94,350 across seven points. This scale has the largest increments in physiotherapy, averaging about €2,626 a step against roughly €1,526 on the staff grade scale.
Do other therapy professions earn the same as physiotherapists?
Yes, five professions share these figures exactly. We checked every point of every grade in the Consolidated Salary Scales: physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics and podiatry are on identical staff, senior and manager scales. A therapist on point 7 of staff grade is paid €55,150 in all five. The one difference is at the top: dietetics has a Manager in Charge III grade reaching €100,131 which the others do not have.
How much ASC does a physiotherapist pay?
The Additional Superannuation Contribution charges nothing on the first €34,500 of pensionable pay. On the staff grade starting salary of €45,514 it applies to about €11,000 of it, at 3.33% for a Single Public Service Pension Scheme member. From the Senior grade upward part of the salary passes €60,000 and attracts the 3.5% rate.
Is physiotherapist pay the same across Ireland?
Yes in the public health service. The Consolidated Salary Scales are national and apply in HSE and Section 38 voluntary employers alike, so the same point pays the same everywhere with no Dublin weighting. Private practice is outside this structure entirely.
When do HSE salaries increase next?
These rates come from the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026, which applied a 1% increase on 1 June 2026. That agreement is in its final year, so the next rates depend on the agreement that succeeds it. We update this page when new consolidated scales are published.

Where these figures come from

Every euro figure on this page is taken from the official circulars below, not from salary surveys or crowd-sourced averages. Last checked 2026-08-14.

More public sector pay:

All public sector pay scales →