As examined in Dental Assistant Pay in the Top 20 Metropolitan Markets, the biggest metro areas are the major U.S. centers for dental assistant employment. That fact notwithstanding, a closer look into U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reveals that smaller metro areas are where dental assistants frequently find better pay, sometimes much better.  Indeed, a review of BLS data from May 2022 shows us that just four of the top 20 U.S. metro areas were among the 20 best metropolitan markets for dental assistant pay:

20 Best Metropolitan Markets for Dental Assistant Pay

	Metropolitan Area		# Employed	Annual Mean Wages
1	San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (#)		5,550	$62,830
2	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA		3,700	$61,130
3	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington (#)		3,930	$61,020
4	Santa Rosa, CA		680	$56,750
5	Rochester, MN		350	$56,510
6	Mankato-North Mankato, MN		110	$55,470
7	Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA		530	$54,850
8	St. Cloud, MN		240	$54,710
9	Bismarck, ND		190	$54,170
10	Burlington-South Burlington, VT		250	$54,050
11	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA		3,270	$53,350
12	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (#)		6,050	$53,330
13	Napa, CA		230	$53,280
14	Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH (#)		7,330	$53,060
15	Vallejo-Fairfield, CA		540	$52,560
16	Salem, OR		550	$52,550
17	Fairbanks, AK		140	$52,500
18	Duluth, MN-WI		250	$52,360
19	Durham-Chapel Hill, NC		730	$52,160
20	El Centro, CA		120	$51,880
	National		363,880	$44,710

(#) a top 20 U.S metro population area

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on April 26, 2023