Physician Assistant Salary: What the Job Pays
Diagnosing and treating patients, prescribing, and managing care as part of a physician-led team.
Last updated
- Median
- $135,880
- Bottom 10%
- $99,380
- Top 10%
- $190,280
- Employed
- 162,150
What a Physician Assistant Earns
The national median is $135,880. Half of everyone in this occupation earns between $120,670 and $163,980, and the full published range runs from $99,380 at the tenth percentile to $190,280 at the ninetieth. The occupation employs 162,150 people.
A median is a midpoint, not an offer, and this occupation's range is wide for a specific reason. Specialty. Surgical, emergency and dermatology PAs earn well above primary care PAs, and that single split accounts for most of this occupation's range. Geography matters less here than in most health occupations because the shortage is broad.
So the number to plan around is not the median. It is the quartile you can realistically reach given the setting you would work in, which for this occupation is the variable that moves pay most.
How a DHSc Degree Affects Physician Assistant Pay
PAs are named on the admissions lists at Touro and Bay Path. They already out-earn most of the destination occupations on this page, which makes the return calculation for a PA taking a DHSc unusually demanding: the degree has to buy a role change, not a raise.
The Full Pay Range for Physician Assistants
Five percentiles and a mean, which is everything the wage survey publishes for this occupation nationally.
| Point in the Range | Annual Pay | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $99,380 | Nine in ten earn more than this |
| 25th percentile | $120,670 | The bottom of the middle half |
| Median | $135,880 | Half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $163,980 | The top of the middle half |
| 90th percentile | $190,280 | One in ten earn more than this |
| Mean | $141,280 | The average, pulled upward by the top of the range |
The mean is within $5,400 of the median, so pay in this occupation clusters rather than spreading. The middle half sits inside a $43,310 band. You can predict what this job pays more reliably than you can for most of the careers a DHSc points at.
Where Physician Assistants Jobs Are
The ten states with the most jobs, which is a different list from the ten that pay best. Together they hold 56% of the 162,150 jobs nationally.
| State | Employed | Median |
|---|---|---|
| New York | 19,140 | $160,880 |
| California | 13,600 | $165,650 |
| Texas | 10,110 | $134,550 |
| Florida | 9,310 | $129,620 |
| Pennsylvania | 9,020 | $127,070 |
| North Carolina | 7,490 | $129,360 |
| Michigan | 6,310 | $131,510 |
| Georgia | 5,610 | $115,390 |
| Ohio | 4,900 | $132,090 |
| New Jersey | 4,790 | $165,690 |
Employment and pay do not line up. A state can hold a large share of the jobs and pay near the national median, and a small state can top the pay table on a few hundred posts. Read the two tables together: the first tells you what the work pays, the second tells you where the work is.
Physician Assistants Pay by State
Every state and territory that publishes a median for this occupation, highest first.
| State | Median | Bottom 10% | Top 10% | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | $165,690 | $117,860 | $207,000 | 4,790 |
| California | $165,650 | $99,380 | $225,190 | 13,600 |
| Washington | $164,360 | $125,580 | $218,150 | 3,540 |
| Hawaii | $164,050 | $79,280 | $178,110 | 530 |
| New York | $160,880 | $106,440 | $201,410 | 19,140 |
| Oregon | $155,780 | $123,100 | $198,490 | 2,250 |
| New Hampshire | $150,960 | $119,540 | $175,380 | 1,060 |
| Alaska | $150,700 | $106,060 | $201,270 | 700 |
| Vermont | $150,490 | $112,460 | $186,960 | 410 |
| Massachusetts | $142,410 | $65,220 | $204,140 | 4,470 |
| Montana | $141,470 | $112,200 | $165,560 | 600 |
| Minnesota | $141,190 | $112,390 | $183,320 | 3,660 |
| Rhode Island | $139,930 | $98,760 | $200,030 | 810 |
| New Mexico | $139,920 | $70,010 | $172,900 | 700 |
| Connecticut | $139,860 | $106,380 | $180,900 | 3,570 |
| Delaware | $139,350 | $108,560 | $175,970 | 860 |
| Maryland | $137,560 | $110,190 | $174,280 | 2,950 |
| Oklahoma | $136,550 | $102,890 | $173,010 | 1,770 |
| Wyoming | $136,080 | $102,320 | $177,900 | 330 |
| Virginia | $135,940 | $98,330 | $213,010 | 4,340 |
| District of Columbia | $135,140 | $84,520 | $213,560 | 470 |
| Missouri | $135,130 | $82,690 | $169,650 | 2,300 |
| Iowa | $134,770 | $102,330 | $182,940 | 1,200 |
| Utah | $134,740 | $82,910 | $171,430 | 1,610 |
| Nevada | $134,660 | $60,040 | $175,300 | 1,090 |
| Arizona | $134,650 | $106,030 | $174,420 | 3,750 |
| Texas | $134,550 | $102,650 | $169,000 | 10,110 |
| Colorado | $134,540 | $104,590 | $174,090 | 3,270 |
| Wisconsin | $133,950 | $102,420 | $169,150 | 3,580 |
| Idaho | $133,790 | $100,590 | $160,120 | 1,320 |
| North Dakota | $133,450 | $77,300 | $173,860 | 510 |
| South Dakota | $133,200 | $104,660 | $158,020 | 680 |
| Nebraska | $133,040 | $103,720 | $165,540 | 1,330 |
| Ohio | $132,090 | $96,460 | $210,350 | 4,900 |
| Indiana | $132,050 | $105,810 | $196,280 | 2,110 |
| Illinois | $131,950 | $105,160 | $162,330 | 3,790 |
| Michigan | $131,510 | $104,000 | $162,570 | 6,310 |
| Maine | $131,170 | $107,630 | $169,250 | 1,030 |
| Florida | $129,620 | $98,530 | $181,610 | 9,310 |
| North Carolina | $129,360 | $101,100 | $164,770 | 7,490 |
| Louisiana | $128,870 | $100,920 | $162,200 | 1,360 |
| West Virginia | $128,610 | $98,200 | $160,890 | 1,080 |
| Pennsylvania | $127,070 | $99,050 | $158,690 | 9,020 |
| Kansas | $125,640 | $98,280 | $168,480 | 890 |
| South Carolina | $122,490 | $77,620 | $158,860 | 2,250 |
| Kentucky | $120,760 | $79,550 | $161,820 | 1,360 |
| Arkansas | $118,430 | $88,160 | $159,080 | 850 |
| Tennessee | $118,240 | $93,380 | $141,670 | 2,240 |
| Georgia | $115,390 | $62,230 | $172,050 | 5,610 |
| Mississippi | $105,920 | $44,030 | $165,630 | 320 |
| Alabama | $104,960 | $83,020 | $145,100 | 930 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. 51 states and territories publish a median for this occupation. A blank cell means BLS suppressed that figure.
State medians are not adjusted for cost of living here, and you should not read them as though they were. New Jersey leads at $165,690 and Alabama sits at $104,960, but a good deal of that gap is housing rather than spending power. Compare a state figure against local costs before treating it as a reason to move.
Compare Physician Assistant Pay With Other DHSc Degree Careers
Every occupation this site tracks, by median. The group column matters: a destination role is one the doctorate moves you into, and an origin role is work DHSc students were already doing before they enrolled, so its pay is not a return on the degree.
| Occupation | Median | Middle Half | Employed | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician Assistants | $135,880 | $120,670 to $163,980 | 162,150 | Origin |
| Medical and Health Services Managers | $123,860 | $94,700 to $166,100 | 597,080 | Destination |
| Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary | $107,310 | $75,690 to $210,370 | 221,270 | Destination |
| Education Administrators, Postsecondary | $104,590 | $80,870 to $144,370 | 180,470 | Destination |
| Physical Therapists | $102,760 | $86,160 to $121,160 | 267,330 | Origin |
| Occupational Therapists | $100,330 | $82,510 to $116,670 | 162,450 | Origin |
| Health Education Specialists | $64,070 | $50,620 to $87,130 | 65,690 | Destination |
Sources for Physician Assistant Salary Data
Pay figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics extract behind this site. Projections are not in that dataset and are cited to O*NET separately.
- O*NET OnLine: Physician Assistants O*NET OnLine, U.S. Department of Labor, median pay and the 2024 to 2034 employment projection for this occupation.
- NCCPA on PANCE and the PA-C credential National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, the exam and credential behind physician assistant licensure.