The $200K PA Club: See What's Possible for Physician Assistant Salaries

Physician Assistants (PAs) play a crucial role in delivering high-quality care across a wide range of clinical settings. PA salaries can vary significantly - but the specific factors driving these variations are not always well understood. We analyzed thousands of PA salaries on Marit to uncover exactly what contributes to high compensation, helping you make more informed, thoughtful career decisions.

While the median annual total compensation for Physician Assistant is $138,000 - 1 in 14 Physician Assistant earn over $200K!

PA Salary Landscape

The typical Physician Assistant salary ranges between $121K at the 25th percentile and $160K at the 75th percentile. However, 7.1% of Nurse Practitioner salaries (approximately 1 in 14) exceed the $200K threshold, which we'll call the $200K PA Club. These are some of the highest paid physician assistants. What makes these PA roles unique? How do they vary by specialty, compensation structure, employer type, schedules, and geography? Let’s dive in -

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Key Factors

• Specialty selection significantly impacts earnings - with Dermatology & Aesthetics, Urology, Surgery, Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine PAs among the most represented in the $200K Club.
• PAs on a Collections or wRVU based compensation model are 3-4 times as likely to be earning more than $200k than their salaried counterparts.
• Location strongly influences salary potential, with western states and larger metros typically offering higher compensation. Among Metros - the top 5 metros that have the highest proportion of $200K Club PAs are San Jose (CA) with almost 2 our 3 PAs earning more than $200k, San Francisco (CA), St. Louis (MO), Riverside (CA) and Minneapolis (MN).

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Specialty: The Primary Driver of High Earnings

Of all the specialties - Dermatology & Aesthetics stands out, with 22% of dermatology PAs earning above $200K annually. This higher earning potential primarily stems from specialized procedures and treatments that command substantial reimbursement rates. Anesthesiology & Urology PAs are tied at #2 (12.5%), followed by Surgery, Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine - driven by procedural reimbursements in Surgery or increasing demand for specialized psychiatric care. Conversely, PAs in Urgent Care, Family Medicine and other primary care specialties typically yield lower compensation due to limited ability to bill high-revenue procedures. Click here to see how much Physician Assistant make for each specialty.

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Compensation Models: Aligning Revenue with Reward

PAs compensated based on collections, i.e., directly tied to generated revenue from their visits, average $197K annually, with almost 32% earning above the $200K threshold. This is followed by PAs on wRVU based models (~22% in the $200K club). The said, the large majority of PAs on Salaried models, where only 5.3% exceeded the $200K threshold. Productivity based models are less common for Physician Assistants, but are slowly growing in popularity. See here for detailed breakdown of how much Physician Assistants make.

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Employer Type: Government Roles are surprisingly among the ones that offer the most upside

Government and military positions consistently rank among the highest-paying opportunities for PAs, averaging approximately $168K annually, with nearly 23% surpassing the $200K benchmark. The elevated salaries in these public-sector roles are often driven by specialized responsibilities, targeted incentives such as recruitment bonuses and loan repayment programs, and geographic salary adjustments designed to attract PAs to underserved regions. For detailed guidelines on salary adjustments and incentives for government-employed PAs, see the U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Pay & Leave. These positions provide competitive compensation combined with unique benefits and stability not always available in the private sector.

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Location Insights: Go West or Go to Larger Cities

Western states consistently offer higher average salaries, with PAs nearly three times more likely to exceed $200K compared to the national average, though this often comes with higher living costs. Conversely, Southern & Rocky Mountain states have roughly half the likelihood of PAs surpassing $200K relative to national averages. See how much Physician Assistants make in each state.

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Among Metro Areas, once again Physician Assistant Salaries in CA dominates the list of highest paying metros with 3 in the top 5. However, the most notable metro on the list is St Louis (MO), whichis #3 in the list, with approximately 1 in 3 PAs in the $200K Club, yet has a cost of living that is below average.

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Know what's possible and chart your path

Earning a salary above $200K is clearly achievable - if that is a goal you want to set. It just requires understanding the most common pathways. It may not always be easy - since it comes with trade-offs - such as irregular schedules, longer working hours, or increased operational responsibilities associated with self-employment or collections revenue-based compensation models. But if you know what's possible, you can plan your career thoughtfully and accordingly.

Many others have done it, and you can too. You can browse through the thousands of detailed, anonymized and verified PA salary contributions of your peers to help you help choose the right path.

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About the Data & Methodology

Marit's Data is different. It is -

Unique - since it captures the compensation data along with all the details that matter - bonuses, shifts, scheduls, benefits, and more

Comprehensive - Across all specialties and Professions (Physicians & APPs), Employer Types (large and small, including Self-employed, Academic & Non Academic), Job Types (Full Time, Part Time, PRNs and Locums) and Employment Types (W-2, 1099, K-1)

Current - Unlike other benchmarks that only update their data once a year, all salaries reflect the clinician’s current compensation, and all averages are updated in real-time as new salaries are added

All data in this report comes from anonymized salary contributions on Marit, as of Jun 6, 2025. Only verified salary reports approved by our moderation team are included.

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