There were just under 133,000 physician assistant jobs in the U.S. as of May 2021 according to data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  While small numbers of physician assistants work in outpatient care centers, academic institutions, and in the offices of non-physician healthcare practitioners, most PAs work in physician offices and hospital facilities. Because of their training and the scope of supervised physician services they can provide, PAs generally earn more than workers in most healthcare occupations.  The BLS estimated that, as of May 2021, the national mean wage for physician assistants was $119,460 per year.  There is, however, wide variation in the average annual wages earned by PAs.  This variation can be readily seen in BLS data, as of May 2021, for physician assistants working in the twenty largest U.S. metro areas:

Physician Assistant Pay in the Top 20 Metro Areas

	Metropolitan Area		# Employed	Mean Annual Wage
1	New York-Newark-Jersey City		12,550	$138,490
2	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim		5,320	$129,210
3	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin		1,730	$119,140
4	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington		2,830	$105,510
5	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land		n/a	$118,540
6	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria		3,630	$113,320
7	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington		2,840	$122,670
8	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach		1,930	$115,420
9	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta		3,510	$117,540
10	Boston-Cambridge-Newton		2,510	$131,600
11	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler		2,380	$120,930
12	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley		1,760	$164,150
13	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario		1,380	$129,890
14	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn		1,730	$114,170
15	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue		1,390	$139,400
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington		1,590	$127,550
17	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad		1,180	$127,660
18	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater		760	$102,530
19	Denver-Aurora-Lakewood		1,470	$121,110
20	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson		2,140	$102,260
	National		132,940	$119,460

Report Period:  May 2021
Top 20 U.S. Metro areas from 2020 Census
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Occupational Statistics
Data extracted on September 10, 2022