Medical Assistant Salary in New York 2026,
$48,000 Median | BLS Data by City

New York medical assistants earn a median $48,000 a year, $23.08 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $43,600 and $55,120 and a full range of $37,280 to $59,480. That is 5.1% above the $45,690 national median.

Ithaca at $53,760, then New York-Newark-Jersey City at $48,370, Glens Falls at $47,860, Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh at $45,450 and Albany-Schenectady-Troy at $44,870. Ithaca leading by five thousand dollars over the metropolitan area is a supply story — a small upstate market with a large academic health presence and very few local candidates.

No. New York issues no licence, registration or certification for medical assistants and the title is not protected, so a practice may train into the role. What New York does regulate is scope: tasks reserved to licensed professionals cannot be delegated to unlicensed staff, which is applied more strictly here than in some states. Employers screen on AAMA or NHA certification, which most large New York health systems now require.

At $48,000 a medical assistant sits in New York's lower-middle brackets, well below the 10.9% top rate. The city tax is the significant item: a five-borough resident pays an additional 3.078% to 3.876%, which is a real proportional cost at this income. Employees also fund Paid Family Leave at 0.432% of wages in 2026, capped at $411.91, plus statutory disability coverage.

Certification, specialty and setting. AAMA or NHA certification is the first step and is increasingly required rather than preferred. Specialty practices — dermatology, cardiology, ophthalmology, surgical offices — pay above primary care because the clinical tasks are more technical. And lead or practice coordinator roles add responsibility for scheduling, inventory and training. Together those are what reach the $55,120 seventy-fifth percentile and the $59,480 ninetieth.

Because supply is deep and the work is standardised. New York-Newark-Jersey City at $48,370 sits barely above the statewide median of $48,000, because the metropolitan area has an enormous pool of trained and certified medical assistants and large practice networks operating on standardised pay grids. Ithaca at $53,760 has a large academic health presence relative to its size and almost no local candidate pool, so it pays a premium. In real terms, after city tax and housing, the Ithaca figure is far ahead.

The band is narrow — $37,280 to $59,480 — and this is a low-ceiling occupation in New York as elsewhere. The annualised figure also assumes full-time hours, and part-time work is common in physician practices. What the figure does not capture is the effect of New York's scope restrictions: a medical assistant in a New York practice may be scheduled for a narrower set of clinical tasks than one in a more permissive state, which shapes both the work and the progression available.

Onward rather than upward. The $59,480 ninetieth percentile is the practical ceiling, and reaching it requires lead or coordination responsibility rather than clinical growth. New York medical assistants commonly use the role as an entry point into licensed practice — licensed practical nursing, registered nursing, radiologic technology or surgical technology — all of which are licensed or registered in New York and pay substantially more. Practices in the state's large health systems often support that transition with tuition assistance.