Medical Assistant Salary in Philadelphia, PA 2026,
$45,890 Median | BLS + Market Data

Philadelphia medical assistants earn a BLS MSA median of $45,890/yr, or $22.06 an hour, across the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro, with a published band of $38,300 to $53,400. That is 4.5% above the Pennsylvania statewide median and level with the US median. Certification and specialty placement account for most of the movement within the band.

Yes, but modestly — 4.5% above the statewide median. The metro's large health systems pay on published grades that are only somewhat above what practices in Allentown, Harrisburg or Scranton offer, and Philadelphia's higher living costs absorb most of that difference. The stronger argument for the metro is the number of employers, not the rate.

Specialty and procedural practices — surgical, cardiology and dermatology clinics — that need certified assistants able to handle instruments, injections and procedural set-up. Those roles are how a Philadelphia assistant reaches the $53,400 top of the published band. Large academic systems pay slightly less at the same tier but add tuition benefits that fund the next credential.

Pennsylvania does not license medical assistants, so there is no state exam or registry. Employers screen instead on completion of an accredited programme and a national certification — CMA through the AAMA, RMA through AMT, or CCMA through the NHA. Several community colleges and career schools across the metro run programmes that take about a year.

Strongly. National projections put the occupation's growth at 12.5% over the decade, driven by care shifting out of hospitals into outpatient settings, and the Philadelphia metro's health systems have been expanding exactly that clinic footprint. The practical caveat is that growth in openings has not translated into rapid wage growth here, since the metro sits only level with the US median.

Philadelphia's employment concentration for medical assistants is slightly below the national average, which is counterintuitive for a region this hospital-heavy. The explanation is staffing model: the metro's large systems have historically used LPNs and technician roles for clinical support work that other markets give to medical assistants, so demand for the role never got tight enough to bid rates above the national figure.

This is one estimate for a four-state MSA reaching Wilmington and South Jersey, blending markets where the credential expectations differ. It also reports wages only, and at this pay level the non-wage terms matter disproportionately: health-system tuition assistance, which several metro employers offer, is often worth more over three years than the difference between the metro median and the top of the band.

Because Pennsylvania does not license the role, employers use national certification as the sorting mechanism, and most of the metro's large systems formalise that with separate pay grades. The practical career path here is therefore: get hired uncertified near the bottom of the band, certify while employed, move onto the higher grade, then use the employer's tuition benefit to train into nursing, imaging or laboratory work — which is what most Philadelphia medical assistants at the top of the band eventually do.