Previously, we examined Physician Assistant Pay in the Top 20 Metro Areas. The largest U.S. metropolitan areas certainly provide physician assistant practitioners with many more employment opportunities than do smaller metro areas. However, the better compensation levels are actually found in smaller markets. This can be readily seen in May 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which shows that only two of the 20 largest metro areas in the nation were among the 20 best metro markets for physician assistant pay:
| Metropolitan Area | # Employed | Annual Mean Wages | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salinas, CA | 100 | $161,370 | ||
| 2 | Leominster-Gardner, MA | 50 | $156,250 | ||
| 3 | Waterbury, CT | 140 | $154,550 | ||
| 4 | Danbury, CT | 130 | $147,500 | ||
| 5 | New Bern, NC | 50 | $146,880 | ||
| 6 | Santa Rosa, CA | N/A | $144,230 | ||
| 7 | Visalia-Porterville, CA | 80 | $141,840 | ||
| 8 | Chico, CA | 40 | $138,270 | ||
| 9 | Hartford-W Hartford-E Hartford, CT | 910 | $138,050 | ||
| 10 | Yuba City, CA | 80 | $137,210 | ||
| 11 | Norwich-New London-Westerly, CT-RI | 70 | $136,320 | ||
| 12 | Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA | 260 | $135,970 | ||
| 13 | Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL | 50 | $135,690 | ||
| 14 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario (#) | 1200 | $134,630 | ||
| 15 | Fairbanks, AK | 60 | $134,240 | ||
| 16 | Olympia-Tumwater, WA | 70 | $133,470 | ||
| 17 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (#) | 1,690 | $132,610 | ||
| 18 | Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT | 290 | $131,880 | ||
| 19 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | 640 | $131,040 | ||
| 20 | Midland, TX | 30 | $130,330 | ||
| National | 120,090 | $112,410 | |||
(#) a top 20 U.S metro population area
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on October 28, 2020