Medical Assistant Salary in Massachusetts 2026,
$49,460 Median | BLS Data by City

Massachusetts medical assistants earn a median $49,460 a year, $23.78 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $46,910 and $58,100 and a full range of $43,280 to $61,870. That is 8.3% above the $45,690 national median, with the strongest floor for the occupation in this batch.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton at $50,740, then Barnstable Town at $49,900, Springfield at $48,510, Amherst Town-Northampton at $47,260 and Worcester at $47,240. The spread is only about thirty-five hundred dollars, which means the Boston premium does not begin to compensate for Boston housing costs — the western markets are the better real-terms deal in this occupation.

No. Massachusetts issues no licence, registration or certification for medical assistants and the title is not protected, so a practice may train someone into the role. What governs the work is delegation under the supervising practitioner's authority, within the Board of Registration in Medicine's framework. Employers screen on AAMA or NHA certification, which the state's academic systems increasingly require.

The pay is genuinely better than elsewhere — a $43,280 tenth percentile and a $61,870 ceiling are both strong for this occupation — but Massachusetts housing costs absorb much of that. The state's academic health systems also offer some of the best tuition assistance in the country toward licensed clinical credentials, which is the most valuable thing about entering the role here.

A flat 5% state income tax on wages, with the 4% surtax applying only above one million dollars and no municipal income tax anywhere in Massachusetts. A flat rate is least favourable to lower earners, since a graduated schedule would tax the first part of a $49,460 salary more lightly.

Because licensed staff do more of the work. A location quotient of 0.78 in a state with one of the largest health sectors in the country is striking, and the most credible explanation is staffing model: Massachusetts practices, particularly the academic systems and the state's well-developed community health centre sector, use licensed practical and registered nurses in roles that elsewhere would go to medical assistants. Fewer positions, competing against a high general wage floor, is what produces a median 8.3% above the national figure.

The nominal premium does not survive contact with Massachusetts housing. A $49,460 median is 8.3% above the national figure in a state where housing costs run far more than 8.3% above the national average, so the real purchasing power is below what the same job buys in most of the country — and the Boston metro at $50,740 is the worst offender on that measure. The figure also assumes full-time hours in an occupation where part-time work is common.

Into licensed practice, and no state supports that better. Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey and the other academic systems run substantial tuition assistance programmes toward practical nursing, registered nursing, imaging and surgical technology, and the state's community college pipeline into those credentials is strong. Within the occupation, specialty practice and lead responsibility reach the $58,100 seventy-fifth percentile and the $61,870 ninetieth — a genuinely good ceiling for this role, but still a ceiling.