Exercise Physiologists Salary and Pay
How much do Exercise Physiologists make?
Exercise Physiologists pay a median of $58,160 a year in the BLS May 2024 survey, with a mean of $59,620 across 8,110 counted jobs. Half of all workers in the occupation earn between $48,650 and $65,430.
What Exercise Physiologists actually pay, from the federal wage survey: a $58,160 median, the full percentile ladder, every state's table, and the metros where the jobs and the money sit, on one page.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $58,160 first; type any offer into the custom box to price it against the same year.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $40,930 | $19.68 |
| 25th percentile | $48,650 | $23.39 |
| Median (50th) | $58,160 | $27.96 |
| 75th percentile | $65,430 | $31.46 |
| 90th percentile | $79,830 | $38.38 |
Percentiles answer the question a single average cannot: where would a given Exercise Physiologists offer sit among all 8,110 workers doing this job? The survey top-codes at $239,200+ and withholds unreliable cells, shown as n/p in the table.
Employment and concentration
With 8,110 jobs nationally, Exercise Physiologists make up 0.01% of U.S. employment as BLS measured it in May 2024. The map is uneven: Texas alone holds 900 of those jobs, the top three states hold 26.9%, and the deepest concentration sits in Utah (location quotient 2.33, where 1.00 is the national average). A quotient above 2 usually signals a local industry cluster rather than evenly spread demand.
One in ten workers in this field earns $40,930 or less, and one in ten earns $79,830 or more, so the top-to-bottom ratio is 2.0 to 1 and the annual gap is $38,900. The mean ($59,620) versus median ($58,160) comparison shows a right-skewed ladder where senior and specialist roles lift the average in this occupation.
Pay by state
Sorted by employment, the table below puts Texas first at 900 jobs; sorted by median pay instead, Maine would lead at $87,300. Both orderings are printed in one table:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 900 | 0.1 | 1.23 | $55,830 | $53,850 |
| Florida | 750 | 0.1 | 1.44 | $59,900 | $62,570 |
| Michigan | 530 | 0.1 | 2.31 | $55,690 | $53,150 |
| Ohio | 390 | 0.1 | 1.32 | $56,410 | $53,660 |
| North Carolina | 350 | 0.1 | 1.35 | $55,640 | $50,560 |
| Pennsylvania | 350 | 0.1 | 1.11 | $58,400 | $58,890 |
| Illinois | 310 | 0.1 | 0.98 | $65,410 | $61,270 |
| Colorado | 290 | 0.1 | 1.92 | $59,810 | $61,060 |
| Wisconsin | 290 | 0.1 | 1.91 | $63,440 | $60,890 |
| New York | 240 | 0.0 | 0.48 | $75,860 | $73,250 |
| Utah | 210 | 0.1 | 2.33 | $43,530 | $33,540 |
| Tennessee | 200 | 0.1 | 1.19 | $54,920 | $51,560 |
| Georgia | 190 | 0.0 | 0.74 | $61,740 | $52,880 |
| Virginia | 190 | 0.0 | 0.90 | $62,850 | $59,390 |
| Indiana | 170 | 0.1 | 1.02 | $64,340 | $61,080 |
| South Carolina | 170 | 0.1 | 1.39 | $50,150 | $47,680 |
| Massachusetts | 150 | 0.0 | 0.79 | $73,630 | $68,950 |
| Minnesota | 150 | 0.1 | 0.99 | $63,700 | $61,690 |
| Missouri | 140 | 0.0 | 0.90 | $56,210 | $56,590 |
| Washington | 140 | 0.0 | 0.76 | $78,450 | $80,850 |
| Arizona | 130 | 0.0 | 0.79 | $61,720 | $59,460 |
| New Jersey | 110 | 0.0 | 0.51 | $64,010 | $60,340 |
| Kansas | 100 | 0.1 | 1.38 | $51,520 | $45,080 |
| Oklahoma | 100 | 0.1 | 1.07 | $47,180 | $47,320 |
| West Virginia | 70 | 0.1 | 1.81 | $57,860 | $54,770 |
| Alabama | 60 | 0.0 | 0.51 | $52,520 | $48,980 |
| Idaho | 60 | 0.1 | 1.40 | $55,160 | $53,090 |
| Louisiana | 60 | 0.0 | 0.58 | $50,870 | $43,480 |
| Maryland | 60 | 0.0 | 0.44 | $59,830 | $59,350 |
| Oregon | 60 | 0.0 | 0.59 | $72,730 | $69,180 |
| Delaware | 50 | 0.1 | 2.04 | $59,510 | $55,910 |
| Iowa | 50 | 0.0 | 0.64 | $55,990 | $53,940 |
| Kentucky | 50 | 0.0 | 0.46 | $52,550 | $48,270 |
| Connecticut | 40 | 0.0 | 0.50 | $71,780 | $68,590 |
| Maine | 40 | 0.1 | 1.18 | $81,580 | $87,300 |
| New Hampshire | 40 | 0.1 | 1.13 | $64,990 | $61,420 |
| Arkansas | 30 | 0.0 | 0.48 | $53,150 | $46,770 |
| Nebraska | 30 | 0.0 | 0.60 | $58,920 | $60,670 |
| South Dakota | 30 | 0.1 | 1.36 | $58,220 | $51,460 |
| Wyoming | 30 | 0.1 | 2.25 | $57,430 | $59,280 |
| California | n/p | n/p | n/p | $66,350 | $61,930 |
| Nevada | n/p | n/p | n/p | $55,760 | $52,010 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Exercise Physiologists stands number 712 by employment and number 436 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations, the group median wage is $98,340 across 71 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 41% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 9,592,720 jobs. In 21 of the 42 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $58,160, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is the largest metro employer with 220 jobs, 2.7% of the national total. The first table ranks metros by employment; the second ranks them by mean pay among metros with at least 500 jobs in the occupation, because a three-person metro can top a pay table by accident.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 220 | $69,290 | $67,690 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 220 | $60,290 | $58,490 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 220 | $76,870 | $74,840 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 200 | $56,410 | $55,780 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 200 | $59,500 | $56,970 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 190 | $60,750 | $61,590 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 150 | $57,130 | $56,620 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | 140 | $58,840 | $61,640 |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | 140 | $37,810 | $27,820 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 120 | $73,000 | $65,640 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
Budget arithmetic on the median: $4,847 a month before tax, $2,237 biweekly, $1,118 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($48,650) to the 75th ($65,430) is worth $16,780 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. To turn any of these gross figures into spendable money, run them through the paycheck calculator; to weigh an offer against your current role, use the salary calculator; to test a raise against prices, the raise vs inflation calculator.
To place a real offer: a salary of $63,976 would sit between the median ($58,160) and the 75th percentile ($65,430), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $48,650, is $9,510 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations
The occupations BLS groups with this one, by size: Ophthalmic Medical Technicians, General Internal Medicine Physicians, Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians, Nurse Anesthetists, Pediatricians, General, Optometrists. Every one of the 826 published occupations is indexed on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Exercise Physiologists make?
The median annual wage is $58,160 and the mean is $59,620 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $48,650 and $65,430 a year.
Which state pays Exercise Physiologists the most?
By median annual wage, Maine leads the state table at $87,300, based on 40 jobs in that state. By mean wage and by headcount the leaders can differ, so the state table on this page shows all three measures side by side.
How many Exercise Physiologists are there in the United States?
BLS counted 8,110 wage and salary workers in this occupation in May 2024, 0.01% of all U.S. employment in the survey. The largest state employer is Texas with 900 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Exercise Physiologists?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $40,930 or less and one in ten earns $79,830 or more; the median, $58,160, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 8,110 counted jobs.