Before you accept any job as a physical therapist you should carefully review the physical therapist job offer letter.

In this article, I will share what a physical therapist job offer letter template should include and what questions it should answer to protect both the employer and the physical therapist.

What should a physical therapist job offer template include?

• Important Dates
• Compensation & Benefits
• Vacation Time
• Continuing Education Utilization and Reimbursement
• Incentive Program / Bonuses
• Resignation Notice

Details for each of the items included on the physical therapist job offer template.

Important Dates:

• Start date
• Holidays
• Training Days

Compensation & Benefits:

Compensation should clearly indicate if this is an hourly position or a salaried position. Common questions about compensation include:

• Is a staff therapist required to clock out or use PTO during unfilled appointment times?
• Is a staff therapist required to utilize PTO for continuing education class scheduled during the work week?
•  If paid hourly, what is the smallest unit of time and how are additional minutes calculated? For example, does an employee get paid for a quarter-hour? And if so does the quarter hour count after the first 8 minutes?

If compensation is paid hourly, what is the compensation per hour?

If compensation is paid as a salary, what is the annual compensation?

Is compensation guaranteed?

Vacation Time, Holidays, and Sick Leave:

• Is vacation time accumulated according to the number of hours worked?
• What are the holidays observed? If a holiday falls on a non-work day does the employee get paid for that holiday?
• Is an employee required to use available PTA before accessing sick leave?
• Is sick leave paid or unpaid?
• Is a doctor’s note required for sick leave?
• If the employee receives a raise in hourly compensation, is the previously accumulated vacation time paid at the previous pay rate?

Continuing Education Utilization and Reimbursement

ConEd has become far less expensive with the introduction of unlimited continuing education credits online.

If continuing physical therapy clinical education is a covered benefit, then consider asking some of the following questions:

• Do ConEd courses require prior approval?
• If the ConEd allowance isn’t fully utilized is the employee able to cash out the balance?
• If the ConEd course is scheduled for a workday is the employee required to utilize PTO? 
• May the employee pay for the ConEd course and receive reimbursement after the fact?
• Is the employee required to compensate the employer for used ConEd expenses when submitting a letter of resignation? Or upon termination? 

Incentives and Bonuses:

If the company offers incentives or bonuses it is important to clearly outline the requirements for payment. It is also important to provide objective measures to achieve these additional payments.

Common questions include:

• If an employee has earned a bonus but is terminated prior to receiving the bonus is the bonus paid to the terminated employee?
• If an employee qualifies for a bonus and submits a letter of resignation prior to the bonus distribution, is the employee still eligible for payment?
• How long is the employee required to work for the organization before being eligible for a bonus? 

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