Physician assistant salary

How much does a PA make?

A PA makes $135,880 at the U.S. median; half of physician assistants earn between $120,670 and $163,980, and the 10th percentile is $99,380.^[onet_pa] Physician assistant is one of the larger clinical occupations in the survey, with 162,150 jobs in May 2025, and BLS projects employment to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035.^{[oews_api][ooh_pa]}

*Single filer, 2026 federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (with the 0.9% surtax over $200,000); before state tax.

PA pay is unusually compressed: the 90th percentile is only 1.9 times the 10th, against 5.6 times for family physicians. In other words, where a PA lands in the distribution moves pay less than it does for physicians.^{[onet_pa][onet_fm]}

PA salary per hour

PA hourly pay is $65.33 at the median, $47.78 at the 10th percentile and $91.48 at the 90th, on BLS's 2,080-hour year.^[oews_faq] To check an hourly offer, choose “My own offer” and “Hour”; the calculator annualizes it at 2,080 hours and shows its percentile.

Physician assistant salary by state

California has the highest average PA salary at $169,110, then Washington ($164,430) and New Jersey ($162,100); Mississippi is lowest at $106,820.^[oews_api] The largest PA job markets are New York (19,140), California (13,600), Texas (10,110), Florida (9,310), Pennsylvania (9,020). California's mean of $169,110 is $27,830 above the national mean; in Texas the mean is $135,850, and Texas has no state income tax.

Jobs: BLS OEWS employment estimate, May 2025. “—”: not released.

Download all physician assistant wages as CSV (nation, 51 states and every published metro area: mean, 10th–90th percentiles, jobs)

PA salary by metro area

The best-paid metro areas for PAs by median are led by San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA at $223,640.^[onet_pa] BLS published PA wages for 462 metro and nonmetro areas, more than for any physician specialty, so local figures are steadier here.

PA vs doctor salary

A PA earns $108,300 less than a family medicine physician and $135,210 less than the median non-surgical physician, but starts working years earlier.^[oews_api] PA programs typically run about 27 months after college, against four years of medical school plus at least three of residency, and PAs need a master's degree to practice.^{[paea][ooh_pa]} Whether the extra physician pay outweighs the extra training and debt is exactly what the PA school cost and medical school cost calculators help answer.

Other careers with doctoral but non-MD training are on optometrist salary and chiropractor salary; every physician specialty is on doctor salary.

Why PA salary figures differ between sources

Salary figures for physician assistants differ between websites mainly because they use different years, different averages and different groups of workers. Check these six things before comparing any number with the BLS figures on this page.^{[oews_tec][oews_faq]}