Somewhere in Arkansas, a physician assistant listing sits at $45,000 a year. Somewhere in Mason City, Iowa, a travel PA is pulling $138 an hour (annualized: $287,040). Same job title. Same two letters after the name. A 6x spread.

The physician assistant market in 2026 spans 1,239 active listings across 51 states and DC, running from rural locum gold rushes to salaried coastal staff roles that would make a resident wince. Salary was disclosed on 542 of them.

The data tells one clean story: PA compensation is no longer a single number — it’s a lifestyle choice with a paycheck attached.
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The Physician Assistant Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 1,239
Listings with salary data: 542
Full national range: $45,000 to $287,040 (annualized)
National average range: $154,122 to $195,898

The spread is enormous because the job is enormous. A dermatology PA in Sacramento clocking a flat $160,000 lives in a different universe than a critical care traveler in Iowa billing hourly. Both are PAs. Only one owns a rolling suitcase.

The average range — roughly $154K to $196K — is the honest middle. It’s what a full-time salaried PA in a mid-sized market realistically earns. Everything above it is a premium for mobility, scarcity, or specialty. Everything below it is Arkansas.

States represented: IA, CT, ME, CA, NY, WA, GA, IL, NC, IN, PA, OH, MA, HI, MI, SC, NM, CO, MO, DE, VA, WI, NV, TX, MN, AZ, SD, FL, MD, MT, WV, RI, VT, NJ, DC, OR, AR, ID, AK, LA, TN, ND, NE, MS, AL, OK, WY, NH, UT, KS, KY.
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How States Stack Up

Overperformers

• Michigan ($218,400–$287,040): One listing, almost certainly a travel role, but it sets the ceiling.
• Nebraska and Kansas ($218,400–$287,040): Identical ranges, identical story — locum premiums in low-density markets.
• North Dakota ($223,600–$268,320): Two listings. The prairie pays.
• Tennessee ($208,000–$271,093): Three listings, all elevated. Rural specialty demand at work.
• Alabama ($208,000–$260,000): One listing but a real one.
• Indiana ($195,000–$268,840): Small sample, big numbers.
• Ohio ($191,360–$236,288): Rare high performer in a populous state.
• Wyoming ($187,200–$239,200): Scarcity tax.
• Wisconsin ($177,025–$239,610): Consistent high output.
• Idaho, Pennsylvania ($176,800 low-end): Small samples, solid ceilings.
• Virginia ($175,855–$230,502): Above average with reasonable volume.
• Florida ($173,855–$221,716): The rare warm-weather overperformer.
• Iowa ($173,333–$224,640): Traveler heaven.
• North Carolina ($172,654–$227,506): 100 listings AND above-average pay. The unicorn.
• Delaware, DC, Louisiana, South Dakota, New Mexico, Minnesota, South Carolina, Georgia: all clear the national average.

Near-Average

• California ($161,856–$200,743): Solid pay, absurd volume.
• Texas ($161,200–$211,987): Predictably steady.
• Montana ($160,350–$210,270): Reliable middle.
• Missouri ($157,120–$204,800): Boringly on-trend.
• Maryland ($155,367–$194,907): Textbook benchmark.
• Maine ($154,260–$192,244): Same.
• New Jersey ($152,275–$185,565): Slightly under, holding.
• Oregon ($150,945–$202,502): Volume with mid-tier pay.
• Washington ($150,831–$177,784): High volume, average money.
• Alaska ($149,635–$188,459): Less than you’d expect for Alaska.

Underperformers

• Arizona ($145,600–$189,280): 45 listings and only 5 disclosed pay — an information vacuum.
• Nevada ($141,440–$183,040): Below the line.
• Illinois ($137,734–$173,142): Weak for a major metro market.
• Hawaii ($134,156–$158,400): Paradise tax working in reverse.
• New York ($134,122–$169,004): 94 listings. Modest pay. A classic.
• Massachusetts ($132,226–$163,191): Boston prestige, not Boston paychecks.
• Connecticut ($130,687–$167,169): Same story.
• Vermont ($129,367–$154,747): Below floor.
• Colorado ($126,058–$159,054): Underperforms consistently.
• Rhode Island ($115,000–$153,750): Small state, small numbers.
• Arkansas ($45,000–$90,000): The national floor. One listing. It counts.

Volume leaders: California (165), North Carolina (100), New York (94), Washington (72), Oregon (60), Massachusetts (53), Illinois (49), Arizona (45), Connecticut (43), South Carolina (43).

New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have volume and disappointing pay. North Carolina has both. That’s the whole board.
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What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation: Look to travel and locum work in Iowa, Tennessee, Indiana, North Dakota, and the Nebraska/Kansas/Michigan cluster. The highest disclosed rates — $105 to $138 per hour in Mason City, Iowa and Marietta, Georgia (annualizing to $218,400–$287,040) — are travel roles. Bring a suitcase and a tolerance for weather.

If your priority is maximum optionality: California (165 listings), North Carolina (100), and New York (94) offer the deepest markets. North Carolina is the standout — real volume paired with above-average pay ($172,654–$227,506).

If your priority is balance: North Carolina again. Also Washington, Oregon, and Virginia — solid volume, near or above the national average, and cost-of-living that doesn’t require selling a kidney. The highest identified full-time salary was a critical care PA role in Redding, California at $145,000–$180,000. Note: it’s Redding, not San Francisco. Cost-of-living math actually works.

Watch Hawaii, Colorado, and Vermont — high living costs, below-average PA pay. The gap is real.
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What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 542 of 1,239 listings, or 43.7%. Below half. Candidates are increasingly filtering out opaque postings, and every undisclosed listing is a click lost to a competitor who was willing to type a number.

The pipeline problem is concentrated in the Northeast. New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut post heavily and pay below average. Recruiters in those markets cannot lead with money. They must lead with schedule, benefits, patient population, teaching affiliation, or lifestyle. Arizona (45 listings, 5 with pay) is a transparency emergency — recruiters there are effectively invisible on salary-filtered searches.

North Carolina is the market to study, not fix. High volume, competitive pay, healthy disclosure. Everyone else is fighting the last war.
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What’s Driving the Numbers

Travel and locum roles distort the ceiling. Nearly every state with an average above $200,000 is being lifted by hourly travel listings annualized at 2,080 hours. That $287,040 top-end in Michigan, Nebraska, and Kansas is real money for real work — but it’s not a staff salary. Reading the data without this filter produces fantasy expectations.

Scarcity prices itself in. North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, and rural Tennessee all pay well above coastal metros. Fewer PAs, more open shifts, more leverage. The Great Plains have quietly become the highest-paying PA territory in America. Nobody is putting that on a recruitment brochure.

Volume and pay are uncoupled. California posts 165 jobs and pays $161K–$201K. New York posts 94 and pays $134K–$169K. North Carolina posts 100 and pays $172K–$228K. The old logic — dense markets pay more because demand is thicker — has broken. Employer concentration in coastal metros compresses wages. Fragmented rural markets can’t.

The Arkansas floor is a data point, not a trend. One listing at $45,000 to $90,000 is either a part-time role, a training position, or a typo. Treat outliers as outliers — but also acknowledge that when the floor is that low, disclosed data is doing its job.

The Bottom Line

The physician assistant market has bifurcated into two economies: the salaried coastal PA earning a solid but capped living, and the mobile PA renting themselves out to underserved markets for prairie-level premiums. Volume no longer predicts pay. Geography does — but inversely. The states with the most listings often pay the least, and the states nobody wants to move to are quietly writing the biggest checks.

Being a physician assistant in 2026 pays anywhere from $45,000 to $287,040 — the difference is not skill, it’s zip code and willingness to pack.
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Salary data based on 542 listings with disclosed compensation. Figures may reflect part-time or specialized roles. This report is informational and should not replace professional judgment or financial planning.