Medical Assistant Salaries: How Much Can They Make 2023?
How much do medical assistants make in an hour, a month, or a year?
Compared with other healthcare jobs, medical assistants remain almost at the bottom of the salary heap but they make more than nursing aides and personal care aides do.
But because different states offer different pay grades to medical assistants, where you work could also have an impact on the income you earn.
According to reports in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for medical assistant in 2016 was $31,540. The 10% of medical assistants that are paid well made more than $45,310 while the other 10% at the end of the spectrum made less than $22,870.
Compared to the 2010 salary outlook, however, medical assistant salary has increased by 75% in 2023.
Where do medical assistants earn more?
Medical assistants are paid more in junior colleges than in physicians’ offices and hospitals.
They earn $17.85 per hour in colleges, universities, and professional schools; $16.83 in outpatient care centers; $16.46/hour in general medicine and surgical hospitals; $15.76/hour in offices of physicians; and $14.26/hour in offices of other health practitioners.
When it comes to the best paying cities, the top 5 highest average salaries are in the metropolitan areas of Eau Claire, Wisconsin ($49,540), San Francisco ($45,130), San Jose, California ($45,020), Vallejo, California ($43,470), and Fairbanks, Alaska ($43,180).
As for the best paying states for medical assistants, the highest mean salaries can be earned in Alaska at $41,340, the District of Columbia at $39,500, Massachusetts at $38,990, Washington at $38,020, and Minnesota at $37,560.
National Certified Medical Assistant Salary
Getting certified is one way to open up more avenues for employment and get a pay rise.
A report in PayScale showed the following salary comparisons for different medical assistant positions, including bonus:
Medical Assistant Salary Comparison
Medical Assistant
Median Salary by Job: $30,398
Hourly Rate: $14.44
Bonus: $502
Medical Office Manager
Median Salary by Job: $46,150
Medical Assistant (Certified)
Median Salary by Job: $31,273
Hourly Rate: $14.60
Bonus: $484
Practice Manager
Median Salary by Job: $54,275
Bonus: $1,483
Certified Medical Assistant (CMA)
Median Salary by Job: $30,067
Hourly Rate: $14.61
Bonus: $490
Office Manager, Medical Office
Median Salary by Job: $42,697
Bonus: $994
Practice Administrator
Median Salary by Job: $59,164
Bonus: $2,888
Hourly rates also vary based on the degree a medical assistant acquired.
- Certificate (Cert), Medical Assisting earns $11 – $17 per hour
- Associate of Applied Science (AAS) earns $12 – $16 per hour
- Graduate Certificate, Medical Assisting earns $11 – $17 per hour
- Associate of Science (AS) earns $11 – $17 per hour
- Bachelor of Science (BS / BSc) earns $11 – $18 per hour
The same report also showed key statistics for certified medical assistant
- 95% of them are female
- 5% are male
- 40% have 1 to 4 years’ experience
- 24% have 5 to 9 years’ experience
- 22% have 10 to 19 years’ experience
- 9% have 20 years or more experience
- 5% have 1 year experience
Because medical assistants have the option to work in a variety of healthcare settings, they have the ability to specialize their skills. This will make them more suitable for work in a specialty practice.
From working in dental offices, hospitals, schools, medical offices, and outpatient care centers, they can venture into specialty practice, such as orthodontics, wound care, pediatrics, cardiology practices, obstetrics, and surgical centers.
Of course, for a medical assistant to work in specialty practice, they need additional training.
Those working in a wound care center, for example, need training to evaluate, measure, and bandage different wounds on different parts of the body. Those working in a dentist’s office will need to train to use specific equipment, such as an X-ray machine before they can be certified for specialty practice.
Upon completion of training, medical assistants can expect advancement up the job ladder and increase in salary.
