More than half of medical assistants in the U.S. work in physician offices, but large numbers are also found working in hospitals, ambulatory care centers, assisted living facilities, and offices of other types of healthcare practitioners. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimated that, as of May 2022, nearly 752,500 medical assistants were employed in the United States. According to BLS data from May 2022, the annual mean wage for medical assistants was $40,700. The profession's median annual wage, which separates the bottom and upper half of the wage scale, was $38,270.  From region to region, there was wide variation in medical assistants' mean annual wages, with medical assistants in some regions of the country earning 50% or more than their counterparts elsewhere. This variation is readily seen in BLS data for the nation's top 25 metropolitan areas, home to about 43% of all medical assistant jobs, which reveals the following about medical assistant average pay in the top 25 U.S. metro markets as of May 2022:

Medical Assistant Average Pay in the Top 25 U.S. Metro Markets

	Metropolitan Area		Median Annual Wage	Mean Annual Wage
1	New York-Newark-Jersey City		$44,420	$44,390
2	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim		$39,310	$43,880
3	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin		$41,970	$42,100
4	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington		$38,120	$38,930
5	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land		$37,630	$38,770
6	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria		$44,680	$44,530
7	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington		$39,540	$41,520
8	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach		$37,560	$39,010
9	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta		$37,590	$39,240
10	Boston-Cambridge-Newton		$46,720	$47,730
11	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler		$40,080	$41,490
12	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley		$58,630	$58,710
13	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario		$37,320	$41,020
14	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn		$36,780	$37,120
15	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue		$52,620	$54,010
16	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington		$48,850	$48,420
17	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad		$43,890	$44,960
18	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater		$36,970	$37,750
19	Denver-Aurora-Lakewood		$45,530	$46,010
20	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson		$39,900	$41,310
21	St. Louis, MO-IL		$37,620	$38,190
22	Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford		$35,720	$37,130
23	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia		$39,070	$39,980
24	San Antonio-New Braunfels		$36,260	$35,920
25	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro		$47,910	$48,570
	National		$38,270	$40,700

Report Period:  May 2022
Top 25 U.S. Metro Areas from the 2020 Census
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Occupational Statistics
Data extracted on June 24, 2023