The mean pay for physician assistants hit $126,000 this year, but varies based on specialty and practice setting, according to the Medscape physician assistant compensation report.
The report, released June 25, examines the mean compensation for PAs based on responses from 5,826 PAs collected from November 2020 to February.
Twenty-one data points on PA pay:
Annual earnings
1. Total pay: $126,000
2. Base pay: $117,000
3. Productivity or incentive pay: $29,000
4. Annual bonus: $7,000
5. Other: $17,000
By specialty
6. Critical care: $139,000
7. Surgery: $138,000
8. Dermatology: $135,000
9. Emergency medicine: $134,000
10. Orthopedics: $130,000
11. Psychiatry: $124,000
12. Cardiology: $122,000
13. Internal medicine: $121,000
14. Family medicine: $117,000
15. OB-GYN and women's health: $117,000
By work setting
16. Operating room and surgery: $139,000
17. Hospital critical care or ICU: $135,000
18. Emergency department and urgent care: $132,000
19. Acute care hospital; inpatient unit: $129,000
20. Faculty, school or academic: $121,000
21. Medical office or clinic: $120,000