Exercise Science Degree Salary: Pay by Degree Level and Job

The exercise science degree salary you’ll see depends more on the job than on the degree. Four years after finishing, the middle bachelor’s graduate in the College Scorecard’s sports, kinesiology and fitness field earned $55,250, and the middle master’s graduate earned $62,144. The jobs themselves pay from $36,560 to $123,860 in BLS data.

How Much Does an Exercise Science Degree Pay?

There are two honest ways to answer, and they give different numbers. One is what graduates actually earned. The other is what the jobs graduates take pay. We use both, because each one hides something the other shows.

What graduates earned comes from the College Scorecard, the U.S. Department of Education’s earnings data by field of study. For a bachelor’s, the middle graduate earned $55,250 in the fourth full year after finishing. That’s the anchor for a four-year degree.

What the jobs pay comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) wage survey for May 2025. Exercise physiologists, the one job named after the degree, have a median of $59,460. Personal trainers sit at $47,160.

Neither is a promise. Both describe people already in the work, and new graduates usually start lower.

Exercise Science Salary by Degree Level

Here’s what the Scorecard shows for graduates of the sports, kinesiology and fitness field, which is where exercise science and kinesiology degrees are filed. Each figure is earnings in the fourth full year after the degree, in 2024 dollars.

We took each program’s reported median and found the midpoint, counting each program by how many graduates sit behind its number. “Middle half” is the range that covers the middle 50% of programs.

Read the fine print before you quote these. The Scorecard counts only graduates who received federal financial aid, and only those who were working and not enrolled in school. Earnings come from W-2 wages plus self-employment income. The graduates finished in 2017-18 and 2018-19, and earnings were measured in 2022 and 2023.

The field also covers on-campus and online programs together. It isn’t a forecast for the degree you’d start today.

Now the gaps, with the arithmetic. A bachelor’s adds $14,257 over an associate degree ($55,250 minus $40,993). A master’s adds $6,894 over a bachelor’s ($62,144 minus $55,250), which is about 12% more. The first step up is far bigger than the second.

What Do the Jobs Exercise Science Graduates Take Pay?

Exercise science doesn’t lead to one job the way nursing does. Graduates spread across fitness, clinical, coaching and health education work. This table shows the jobs that most often open to a bachelor’s, with BLS May 2025 wages.

Look at the “People Employed” column first. Only 8,560 people hold the exact exercise physiologist job, and O*NET projects about 1,700 openings between 2024 and 2034. It’s a good job, but a small one.

Personal training is where most of the volume sits, and it asks for a certification, not a degree. Your degree helps you climb toward the 90th percentile of $83,100, into management, or into clinical and team settings.

The two highest rows are adjacent jobs. Occupational health and safety specialists work on injury prevention and ergonomics. Health services managers usually get there after years of experience or a health administration degree. Both are real routes, but neither is automatic.

Starting pay also sits near the bottom of each range. For exercise physiologists, the 25th percentile is $49,620, and that’s a fairer guess for a first job than the median.

What Does a Master’s in Exercise Science Pay?

People searching for a masters in exercise science salary usually want one number. The Scorecard gives $62,144 for the middle master’s graduate, which is $6,894 more than the middle bachelor’s graduate. But a master’s doesn’t raise every job’s pay equally.

It pays most when it’s the credential the job asks for. Two examples:

• Clinical exercise physiologist. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certifies clinical exercise physiologists who hold a master’s and 600 hours of hands-on clinical experience, or a bachelor’s and 1,200 hours. A master’s halves the hours.

• College strength and conditioning. These jobs often favor a master’s plus the CSCS, the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist credential from the NSCA.

For personal training, the gate is a certification, so a master’s adds less there.

Now the price. The median total tuition across the online master’s programs on our list with published costs is $20,200. Divide that by the $6,894 gap and you get about 2.9 years to recover the tuition. That ignores taxes, interest and any pay you give up while studying, and it assumes the gap applies to you.

You can spend far less or far more. University of North Georgia’s online MS in Kinesiology is 30 credits at $320 each, about $9,600 before fees. Lebanon Valley College’s MS in Clinical Exercise Physiology costs $26,037 and ends in a 600-hour internship, which is the clinical requirement above.

Compare all 99 in our online master’s in exercise science ranking, or go straight to the clinical exercise physiology master’s programs if the ACSM path is your goal.

Which Degrees After Exercise Science Pay the Most?

The largest raises don’t come from an exercise science master’s. They come from moving into a licensed profession. Exercise science is a common stepping stone, because it covers much of the coursework these programs ask for.

Read this as a different plan, not a salary upgrade. You’d earn a bachelor’s first, then apply to a separate program with its own admissions rules, prerequisites and often years of study.

Athletic training is the clearest trap. A bachelor’s in exercise science does not qualify you, because entry now runs through a professional master’s.

An online bachelor’s can work for these routes only if it covers the prerequisites. Many physical therapy programs limit online lab credit, so confirm before you enroll. Our pre-physical therapy online degree ranking flags which programs fit.

How Much Does a PhD in Exercise Science Make?

A research doctorate doesn’t lead to one job, so there’s no single PhD salary. The usual destination is teaching and research at a university. BLS lists postsecondary teachers of recreation and fitness studies at a median of $77,270, with the 10th to 90th percentile running from $44,900 to $134,890. About 12,630 people hold those jobs.

The spread is wide because a community college instructor and a research-university professor share the same category.

Professional doctorates work differently. A Doctor of Physical Therapy leads to a job with a $102,760 median, but it isn’t an exercise science doctorate. Our online doctorate ranking covers the 12 doctoral programs we found that fit this field.

Liberty University’s PhD in Health Sciences, Exercise and Sport Science is 60 credits at $630 each, about $37,800, and doesn’t require the GRE. Weigh that against a median of $77,270 in the classic professor job before you commit.

Does an Associate Degree in Exercise Science Pay Enough?

By itself, not much. The middle associate graduate earned $40,993 in the fourth full year, about $14,257 less than the middle bachelor’s graduate. Most of the value is what it costs and what it leads to.

The cost is low. Georgia State University’s online AS in Kinesiology and Health is 60 credits at $105, or $6,300 in tuition, and it’s built as a pathway toward a bachelor’s. See more in our online associate degree ranking.

What it leads to is a transfer. Physical therapist assistants have a BLS median of $68,380, but that job needs an accredited PTA associate program, not a general exercise science associate.

Does Where You Live Change Your Exercise Science Salary?

Yes. Washington’s annual mean of $81,870 for exercise physiologists is $20,930 above the national mean of $60,940. BLS lists the top-paying states for exercise physiologists by annual mean wage as Washington ($81,870), Minnesota ($72,750), Massachusetts ($72,210), Wyoming ($71,380) and New York ($71,360).

Those states have small headcounts, so treat them as hints. California and Pennsylvania each employ 640 exercise physiologists, the most of any state.

The state table on this page shows all 42 states BLS reports for the job. You’ll find the full breakdown, with hourly pay, on our exercise physiologist salary page.

How Can You Raise Your Exercise Science Salary?

Pick the credential your target job asks for, and pick a program that counts toward it. Three moves matter most.

Add the right certification. Personal trainers move up with a certification, and clinical exercise physiologists need the ACSM credential. Strength coaches often need the CSCS. Read our ACSM exercise physiologist guide for the requirements.

Check accreditation before you enroll. Starting August 15, 2027, ACSM’s exercise physiologist certification (ACSM-EP) and clinical certification (ACSM-CEP) require graduating from a program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), or one in the process. See ACSM’s rule.

Northeastern State University’s online BS in Health and Human Performance holds CAAHEP accreditation and costs about $279 per credit. Our certification-ready ranking lists every program that qualifies.

Move toward management. The $123,860 median for health services managers and the $90,150 median for occupational health specialists both sit well above the direct jobs. They ask for experience and sometimes another degree.

Is an Exercise Science Degree Worth the Cost?

It’s worth it if you match the degree to a job that pays for it. It’s a poor bet if you expect the degree alone to raise your pay.

The median total tuition for the online bachelor’s programs on our list with published costs is $54,240. Yet the middle bachelor’s graduate earned $55,250 four years out. Measured against that, the degree costs about a year of pay, and trainers and coaches have medians of $47,160 and $47,320.

You can bring the price down. University of the Cumberlands’ online BS in Exercise and Sport Science is 120 credits at $220, about $26,400. Compare more options in the cheapest online degrees ranking.

And before you enroll, price out the degree against a certification-only path if you want to be a trainer. A degree isn’t required for that work.

Start with the online bachelor’s ranking if you’re choosing a four-year program. Our guide on whether exercise science is a good major covers the fit questions.

How We Checked These Numbers

We pulled the bachelor’s, associate and master’s earnings from the College Scorecard’s field-of-study file, updated June 10, 2026, and combined the program-level medians as described above. Wages come from BLS May 2025 occupational data, and growth and openings come from O*NET. We read ACSM’s clinical exercise physiologist page on September 29, 2026.

Wages change every year, and the Scorecard cohorts are several years old. Confirm current numbers on the linked pages before you make a large financial decision.