Recently Certified PA Salary and Student Debt
The 2017 Statistical Profile of Recently Certified Physician Assistants from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) showed the median educational debt for recently certified PAs at $112,500; and a median salary of $95,000.
As the only certifying organization for PAs in the United States the NCCPA uses the PA professional profile to collect data on certified PAs. PAs are required to earn and log continuing medication education hours and pass certification exams in order to obtain initial certification and maintain certification. PAs create an online profile to help keep track of the continuing education hours and certification exams. In 2012, the NCCPA began collecting data through modules within the PA profile.
The data from this report was released in October 2018 and included responses from PAs who were certified for the first time in 2017. The data was collected from participants who answered at least a portion of the survey between January 1, 2017 and December 21, 2017. At the end of this time there were 6,843 out of 8,788 recently certified PAs who had provided responses. “Recently Certified” included PAs who had been certified for the first time for less than six months.
The vast majority of recently certified PAs have education debt, as only 9.8% of respondents reported $0. The median amount of education debt was $112,000 and 3.8% reported more than $225,000.
As with other reports their appears to be plenty of opportunities for PAs as 77.4% of those who had accepted a position received two or more offers; and 67.2% had accepted a clinical position as a PA.
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Although the average PA is making over $100,000 recently certified PAs are making less with a median salary of $95,000. This is to be expected as new graduates are usually willing to take less because they don’t have the leverage or experience in asking for more. Interestingly, for those recently certified PAs who have not accepted a position 16.4% indicated that the minimum salary they would accept was over $100,000. However, the majority were willing to accept a salary in the $80,000 – $100,000 range.
The student debt crisis is a worry for many college graduates and PA school graduates are no different. When asked to rank the top three incentives for their first clinical position, income guarantee was number one and education loan repayment was number two. Flexible hours rounded out the top three.
If you have student loans and the thought of paying them off yourself is a little daunting, you’re not alone. There are a few options to have someone else pay your loans, but most importantly you must create a plan on how you’re going to pay them off and continue to adjust your plan as you go.
There does not appear to be any sings of the cost of education going down and with PA salaries plateauing in recent years, it’s something you want to look at before starting PA school. The best time to come with a plan to pay off your student loans is NOW! It doesn’t matter if you’re done with school or haven’t even started, you should have a plan on how you’re going to pay off your student loans.
Do you have a plan on how you’re going to pay off your student loans? Any helpful tips you’d like to share with others? Please comment below the original post, sign up to receive future posts by email and share with your friends!
As a fellow PA-C with debt over 225K I can attest to feeling like an indentured servant due to these loans. My advise is just as the article get a well thought plan ahead of school. First if possible go the Navy or Air Force route several friends from school did and it worked out fabulously for them, debt free great positions and can choose to continue with military and retire early w pension and still work private sector or just retire. Second get roommates and live very cheap take out the LOWEST amount possible pay all interest you can while in school that is what kills you the acrued interest. Lastly if you end up with a ton of debt and are young look at two things first how much it will cost to pay off loan if you consolidate w loan places like Sofi at much lower interest paying more in principal as often as possible monthly; and if at a nonprofit how much it would be to pay nonprofit payments KNOWING you’re locked for 10 years but will basically only be paying your interest down and the longer you’re in this plan the more money you’ve thrown away without moving the balance leaving you virtually locked into a nonprofit until your 10 years are up and the loan is forgiven. Also be very careful to read the loan forgiveness contract employment deals if they don’t work out you may owe back the money the organization has given to you with interest in a very short time (months). The PSLF is through the federal government and you don’t owe back but must get approval and must reapply annually and must work for nonprofit organization, DON’T get cheated by companies that will tell you to pay money for them to set you up with this, it’s free and if your company is nonprofit you should qualify if your company pays you from nonprofit arm of the organization. Also DON’T let someone tell you you have to put your loans on deferral for a year until you can start the program. Start paying towards the loan when you are working at the nonprofit even if not in the program yet because they should apply all the payments while you were at the nonprofit once you’re accepted. I hope this helps. I’m just trying to pay it forward after all the trials of loans myself. Good luck to all my fellow PAs and future PAs. Sincerely. Laura Louthan PA-C
thank you for your input! Great to hear from others who have been through it already!