Without a doubt if you are interested in becoming a physician assistant one of the first things you will research is physician assistant salary data. There are a number of different approaches you might take. Maybe you’re most interested in the physician assistant starting salary or perhaps the PA salary range?
Well, we’ve done some research for you on these very topics so hopefully some of your questions will be answered in this article.
Physician Assistant Salary Range – National
According to PayScale.com the average national physician assistant salary range is approximately $61k to $100k. There are also other components to total salary such as bonuses and profit sharing so it really depends on what sort of practice environment you end-up working in. For example obviously not all employers will offer any form of profit sharing.
Physician Assistant Salary by State
Another useful way to look at this topic is to see what States on average pay the best. To make sure you end-up ahead in the game though you will want to do a little extra research and see how these salaries compare versus the cost of living in these states.
The latest data from PayScale.com indicates that California leads the way in salaries followed closely by Texas. New York comes in at a fairly distant 3rd place.
Physician Assistant Salaries by Years Experience
Many of you are interested in the starting salary for physician assistants so this is a good way to get an idea of where you will start out on average and how quickly you might expect to see increases in salary.
Physician Assistant Salaries by Specialty
This data is from the 2009 AAPA Census and clearly shows that Emergency Medicine is the place to be if you’re interested in maximizing your income. Various surgical physician assistant subspecialties come in at a close second on average. As you might expect slightly less intense areas of practice such as Primary Care and General Surgery earn lower incomes on average.
Hopefully this data on what sort of Physician Assistant salary you can expect to earn has answered some of your questions and perhaps will set you on your path to determining if this is a profession that meets your expectations financially.