Physician Job Market Analysis Report: Physician Assistant

(PhysEmp Market Intelligence | physemp.com)

THE HOOK

A physician assistant position in Brooklyn pays $180,000 annually. Another in French Camp, California offers $101,920. Both are full-time roles in the same national labor market, separated by $78,080 and roughly 2,800 miles. The PA job market contains 1,211 active listings spanning all 50 states, with compensation data available for 522 of them. Salaries range from $78,000 to $400,000, a $322,000 spread that suggests “physician assistant” is less a single job than a choose-your-own-adventure exercise in geographic arbitrage, scope negotiation, and risk tolerance.

THE NATIONAL SNAPSHOT

Total listings: 1,211. Listings with salary data: 522. Full national range: $78,000 to $400,000. Average salary range: $150,694 to $190,553.

The floor is low enough to raise questions about part-time or rural health center roles. The ceiling is high enough to suggest locum tenens, travel assignments, or specialized procedural work. The average range sits comfortably in the mid-six figures, but the $400,000 upper bound pulls the mean upward in ways that may not reflect the typical full-time employed PA experience. This is a market where the median matters more than the mean, and where job structure (permanent vs. travel, employed vs. independent contractor) likely explains more variance than specialty or geography alone.

States represented: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

STATE BY STATE

OVERPERFORMERS

North Dakota averages $223,600 to $257,400—the highest floor in the country and a reminder that scarcity pricing works. Alabama posts $208,000 to $280,800 from a single data point, which means one employer is either desperate or generous (or both). Kentucky averages $202,800 to $275,600 across two listings, suggesting a regional premium that merits further investigation. South Dakota delivers $197,600 to $250,016, proving that low population density and high compensation can coexist. Tennessee sits at $197,600 to $262,600, outpacing most of the Southeast. Indiana and Mississippi both average $187,200 to $260,000, though each figure is drawn from minimal data. Utah offers $187,200 to $228,800 from one listing, and Idaho averages $182,000 to $223,600 from two. Florida posts $180,400 to $234,667, a respectable showing for a high-volume state. Virginia averages $179,111 to $237,778, and Kansas comes in at $178,880 to $226,720.

NEAR-AVERAGE STATES

Ohio averages $172,769 to $218,666, a solid mid-market result. Wisconsin sits at $173,700 to $233,408. Nebraska offers $176,800 to $218,400 from limited data. New Hampshire posts $170,560 to $216,320, and Montana averages $169,867 to $225,333. North Carolina delivers $166,400 to $223,303 despite leading the nation in listing volume outside California—a rare case of high demand meeting merely average pay. Delaware and Michigan both show $166,400 to $208,000, each from a single listing. Texas averages $163,429 to $213,943, underwhelming given the state’s size and cost structure. Oregon sits at $163,800 to $226,720. Pennsylvania posts $160,457 to $213,657. Arizona offers $159,467 to $201,067 from minimal data. Iowa averages $158,600 to $218,920. South Carolina comes in at $154,900 to $204,100. Maryland posts $153,400 to $195,750. New Mexico averages $152,800 to $208,970. New Jersey sits at $152,640 to $188,140. California averages $152,195 to $187,554, which is unremarkable given the state’s cost of living but defensible given its 175-listing dominance. Georgia posts $151,840 to $192,920. Maine averages $151,486 to $192,086. Louisiana offers $156,000 to $251,680 from one listing.

UNDERPERFORMERS

Alaska averages $145,600 to $187,200, a puzzling result for a state that typically prices in isolation. Minnesota sits at $144,773 to $196,618. Washington posts $141,451 to $166,517 despite 71 listings—high volume, low pay, and a mismatch that should concern Seattle-area recruiters. Illinois averages $139,643 to $176,505 across 50 listings, another volume-pay disconnect. Missouri comes in at $138,000 to $174,000. Vermont posts $134,400 to $162,185. Connecticut averages $131,743 to $168,429. New York sits at $131,300 to $163,376 across 84 listings, a result that makes Brooklyn’s $180,000 offer look like an outlier rather than the norm. Hawaii averages $131,000 to $161,947, which is low even before adjusting for the cost of paradise. Nevada posts $124,189 to $153,020. Colorado averages $123,930 to $156,588, trailing most of the Mountain West. Massachusetts comes in at $122,632 to $151,853, the second-lowest average in the nation. Rhode Island posts $115,000 to $153,750, the lowest floor of any state with salary data.

VOLUME LEADERS

California: 175 listings. North Carolina: 89. New York: 84. Washington: 71. Oregon: 60. Illinois: 50. Georgia: 47. Massachusetts: 44. Arizona: 41. Florida: 39.

California leads in both volume and absolute opportunity, though its average pay is merely adequate. North Carolina offers the second-highest listing count but pays near the national average—a red flag for candidates expecting a premium in a high-demand market. New York’s 84 listings come with below-average compensation, a dynamic that will force recruiters to sell location and lifestyle over dollars. Washington’s 71 listings pair with some of the lowest pay in the dataset, a troubling combination for a state with Seattle-level housing costs.

FOR PHYSICIANS

If your priority is maximum compensation: North Dakota, Alabama, Kentucky, and South Dakota offer the highest average salary ranges in the country, though listing volume is limited and you will need to move. The highest-paying listing in the dataset reaches $400,000, though the raw data does not specify location or scope (a frustrating but telling omission). Tennessee, Indiana, and Mississippi also clear $260,000 on the high end. If you are willing to chase travel or locum contracts, the upper bound of this market is well into the low-to-mid six figures.

If your priority is maximum optionality: California’s 175 listings provide the widest selection of employers, practice settings, and geographic submarkets, even if the pay is middling. North Carolina’s 89 listings offer the second-best volume, though compensation lags. New York provides 84 opportunities, but you will trade salary for proximity to the five boroughs. Washington and Oregon combine for 131 West Coast listings, though both states underpay relative to their cost structures.

If your priority is balance: Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida offer above-average or near-average pay with reasonable listing counts and cost-of-living profiles that make the dollars stretch further. New Hampshire and Kansas post strong averages from limited data, worth investigating if you can tolerate smaller markets. Pennsylvania and Texas provide moderate pay with decent volume, though neither state leads on compensation. Avoid Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Colorado, and New York unless non-financial factors dominate your decision matrix—all four combine high living costs with below-average pay.

FOR RECRUITERS AND HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVES

Salary transparency rate: 43.1% (522 listings with data divided by 1,211 total listings). That means 56.9% of postings provide no compensation guidance, which is a problem when candidates can comparison-shop across 50 states and a $322,000 salary range. In a market this fragmented, opacity is a competitive disadvantage.

Candidate pipeline implications: High-volume states with below-average pay (New York, Washington, Illinois) will struggle to convert interest into offers unless they lead with non-financial value propositions—academic affiliation, loan repayment, visa sponsorship, or mission-driven work. Low-volume states with above-average pay (North Dakota, Kentucky, Alabama) will need to sell lifestyle, adventure, or short-term financial acceleration to overcome geographic hesitation. California remains the safe bet for volume, but recruiters there are competing on convenience and climate, not compensation.

Volume-pay misalignments: North Carolina’s 89 listings generate near-average pay, a dynamic that suggests oversupply or employer coordination (intentional or otherwise). New York’s 84 listings produce below-average compensation despite being the nation’s highest-cost labor market—a gap that will widen as candidates become more geographically flexible post-pandemic. Washington’s 71 listings pair with some of the lowest pay in the dataset, which means Seattle-area recruiters will need to lead with equity, benefits, or four-day workweeks instead of base salary. Illinois posts 50 listings and below-average pay, a combination that makes Chicago a volume play, not a premium market.

THE MARKET FORCES

Travel and locum roles distort the ceiling, and part-time positions distort the floor. The $400,000 upper bound almost certainly reflects short-term, high-intensity contract work rather than employed W-2 positions. The $78,000 lower bound likely reflects part-time hours, rural health center stipends, or new-grad roles with limited scope. The result is a dataset where the extremes are real but not representative, and where the average range ($150,694 to $190,553) provides a more useful baseline for full-time employed PAs than either tail of the distribution.

Underserved markets price in scarcity, but not consistently. North Dakota, South Dakota, Kentucky, and Tennessee all clear $197,000 on the low end, suggesting that rural or low-density markets are willing to pay premiums to attract talent. But Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming (where data exists) do not follow the same pattern—Alaska pays below average, Montana is middling, and Wyoming has no salary data at all. Scarcity pricing works when employers compete for a limited candidate pool, but it fails when employers can leave positions unfilled or rely on locum coverage instead of permanent hires.

Scope and leadership do not command a visible premium in the aggregate data. The raw dataset does not break out compensation by practice setting, procedural scope, or leadership responsibility, which makes it impossible to determine whether surgical PAs, ICU PAs, or those with supervisory duties earn materially more than their peers in primary care or urgent care. The wide range suggests that scope matters, but the data does not prove it. Recruiters and candidates alike are left to infer rather than conclude.

The volume-pay relationship breaks in predictable and troubling ways. California, North Carolina, New York, Washington, and Illinois combine for 469 listings—38.7% of the national total—but only California pays above the national average low, and only barely. High listing volume signals demand, but it does not signal premium compensation. In fact, the inverse may be true: states with the most listings may have the most competition among employers, which suppresses wages, or the most competition among candidates, which does the same. Either way, volume is not a proxy for pay, and candidates who assume otherwise will be disappointed.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The PA job market is geographically vast, structurally fragmented, and financially unpredictable in ways that reward research and punish assumptions. If you want the highest salary, go to North Dakota or Alabama and prepare to explain your decision at dinner parties. If you want the most options, go to California and accept that you will earn less per dollar of rent than your peers in Fargo. If you want balance, go to Virginia or Wisconsin and enjoy the quiet satisfaction of being right without being extreme. The market will pay you anywhere from $78,000 to $400,000 depending on where you go, what you do, and how much risk you are willing to tolerate.

The PA market is a reminder that job titles are abstractions and compensation is a negotiation, not an entitlement.

Salary data based on 522 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.