There were just under 146,000 physician assistant jobs in the U.S. as of May 2023 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 2023, the national mean wage for physician assistants was $130,490 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 2023, 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		15,020	$144,620
2	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim		3,650	$148,390
3	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin		3,030	$123,960
4	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington		3,160	$137,790
5	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land		1,920	$137,550
6	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria		2,830	$121,470
7	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington		3,170	$137,150
8	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach		2,340	$120,810
9	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta		2,300	$115,110
10	Boston-Cambridge-Newton		3,210	$129,670
11	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler		2,820	$131,640
12	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley		1,660	$172,950
13	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario		1,420	$144,990
14	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn		2,010	$121,000
15	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue		2,100	$159,010
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington		1,800	$139,980
17	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad		1,420	$146,100
18	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater		1,170	$125,180
19	Denver-Aurora-Lakewood		1,550	$130,600
20	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson		1,920	$121,340
	National		145,740	$130,490

Report Period:  May 2023
Top 20 U.S. Metro areas from the 2020 Census
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Occupational Statistics
Data extracted on August 4, 2024