Medical Assistant Salary in Pennsylvania 2026,
$43,920 Median | BLS Data by City

Pennsylvania medical assistants earn a median $43,920 a year, or $21.12 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $36,810 at the 10th percentile to $48,500 at the 90th. That is 3.9% below the national median of $45,690. The band is narrow at both ends, which is the defining feature of the role in this state — there is very little upside inside it.

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, at $45,890, then Reading $45,610, Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton $45,400, Chambersburg $43,830 and Harrisburg-Carlisle $43,820. The eastern metros lead, but only by around $2,000 over the central ones — and a Philadelphia post carries the city wage tax, which applies to non-residents working in the city as well as residents. Check the net, not the gross.

No. Pennsylvania has no licence, registration or state-defined scope of practice for medical assistants. What a medical assistant may do is determined by the delegating physician or advanced practice provider and the employer's policies, within the limits of the delegating clinician's own licence. Employers screen instead on national certification — CMA from the American Association of Medical Assistants, RMA from American Medical Technologists, or CCMA from the National Healthcareer Association — and on completion of an accredited programme.

Yes, and precisely because it is not required. In an unregulated state the certification is the only external signal an employer has about what can safely be delegated to an assistant, so it functions as the practical hiring standard even without legal force. The distance between the $36,810 tenth percentile and the $43,920 median in Pennsylvania is largely the distance between uncertified and certified practice — a gap that would not exist if the state had set a floor.

Less than the flat 3.07% state rate suggests. Pennsylvania's state income tax is flat and low, but a local Earned Income Tax levied by the municipality and school district — commonly around 1% — applies on top, and anyone working in Philadelphia pays the city wage tax as well. On a $43,920 median those layers are individually small and collectively noticeable, and they are the reason the roughly $2,000 gap between the Philadelphia and Harrisburg metro figures is smaller in practice than on paper.

Because its health systems staff ambulatory care differently. A location quotient of 0.72 on 23,050 jobs is low for a state with Pennsylvania's population and its very large hospital sector, and the explanation is substitution: Pennsylvania has a comparatively high concentration of licensed practical nurses and registered nurses working in outpatient settings, filling roles that in other states would go to certified medical assistants. Since Pennsylvania does not define a medical assistant scope of practice in law, an employer weighing an unregulated assistant against a licensed LPN has a clearer risk answer than employers in states that do define one — and the staffing pattern follows.

Part-time and hours. Medical assisting has a high incidence of part-time and variable schedules, and OEWS annualises wages as though everyone worked a full year; the hourly median of $21.12 is the fairer basis for comparison. The row also pools clinical and administrative medical assistants, whose duties and pay differ, and it pools independent physician practices with hospital-owned ambulatory networks — the latter generally paying better and offering benefits that a small practice cannot match. The benefits gap is worth more than the metro gap on this page.

Certification first, then employer type, then leaving the role. Certification is the gate to what may be delegated. Employer type is the largest single wage variable — a hospital-owned ambulatory group pays on a health system grade with benefits, while an independent two-physician practice does not. And the honest third point, which this page should not dodge: the $48,500 ninetieth percentile is a low ceiling, and many Pennsylvania medical assistants use the role as an entry into an LPN, RN or radiologic technology programme rather than as a career in itself.