2017 AAPA Salary Report Shows Increased Salary for Physician Assistants
The recent release of the 2017 AAPA salary report shows that Physician Assistant salaries have increased from median salary of $97,000 in 2015 to $102,000 in 2016. The 2017 salary report shows data that was collected in 2016. There were a total of 7,225 of PAs who responded to the survey. The 2017 AAPA salary report comes within $3,000 of the NCCPA and BLS reports; the difference may be explained by the different methodologies of the three reports but is a minor difference.
PAs out west had the highest base salaries again but had the smallest increase from 2015 to 2016. PA’s in the Midwest had the lowest base salaries but had the highest increase from the previous year of 5.3%.
PA’s in Emergency medicine took the top spot for highest salary; overtaking those who worked in surgical sub-specialties. This year the lowest paid specialty is again for those who work in Primary Care.
The AAPA salary report does a great job of breaking down the information as it provides reports for the breakdown of PAs in different specialties, years for experience, location and practice setting. It also does a great job of looking into other important things such as fringe benefits. It breaks down the salary into base salary and bonus and looks at salary versus hourly rates.
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This year’s salary report takes an in-depth look at PA career flexibility, the relationship between salary and gender for PAs, practice barriers and their relationship to salary and the buying power of PA salary.
Compared to other salary reports for PAs the AAPA report does a great job of breaking down the information (there’s almost too much information). Each category is broken down by state; so when looking at one category, such as PA salary in specialties it also shows the difference in salary in each specialty in every state.
It also does a nice job of breaking it down into base salary and bonus, whereas other reports look at total compensation. If you’re wondering what other benefits other PAs are getting such as sign on bonus and other fringe benefits the AAPA report is going to be your best resource.
The problem with the report is the low number of PAs who responded; it ends up being less than 7% of certified PAs which is a very small sample size and about half of what responded to the 2016 survey. However, even though it is a small sample size the numbers are fairly close when compared to other salary reports. With the low number of respondents it makes the report less valid as the majority of PAs may be making much more or less than those who responded to the survey.
If you’re an AAPA member you’ve already paid for the salary report so you can login to your account and order a copy to use for your next negotiation. If you’re wondering what PAs make I would not rely on just one salary report but instead use a combination of reports to compare. The good news for PAs is that salaries appear to be continuing to trend upward; but we need more people to respond to make the data more valid, so if you’re an AAPA member be sure to complete the salary report when you see it come around.
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