Medical Assistant Salary in Virginia 2026,
$44,740 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Virginia figure is $44,740 a year, or $21.51 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $37,090 at the 10th percentile to $52,000 at the 90th. That is 2.1% below the national median of $45,690. Virginia employs 16,650 medical assistants at a location quotient of 0.77, well below the national employment rate for the occupation.

Richmond at $44,490, then Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk $43,620, Charlottesville $42,140, Winchester $40,960 and Lynchburg $40,210. Every one sits at or below the statewide median of $44,740 — the northern Virginia workforce is counted in the Washington metropolitan area rather than in a Virginia-only row, which is the most likely explanation for the gap.

No. Medical assisting is unregulated in the Commonwealth — there is no examination, registration or renewal, and no legal barrier to hiring an untrained candidate. Virginia employers substitute national certification: the AAMA's CMA, the AMT's RMA, the NHA's CCMA or the NCCT's NCMA, with current BLS. The larger health systems tie the clinical tasks they delegate to the certification held, so the credential defines the job even though the state does not.

Complete a medical assisting programme at a Virginia community college or private career school and sit a national certification examination — CMA, RMA, CCMA or NCMA. No state credential exists, so certification and a clean background check are the whole entry package. Because the Virginia band is so compressed, the employer choice matters more than the timeline: a large health system that requires certification and delegates a real clinical scope is what separates the $38,840 twenty-fifth percentile from the $46,570 seventy-fifth.

Because the role is standardised and the state adds no graded credential to differentiate it. From the $38,840 twenty-fifth percentile to the $46,570 seventy-fifth is under 20% — half of Virginia's medical assistants sit in that range. With no licensure, no state-recognised tiers and a location quotient of 0.77 indicating the Commonwealth uses the role sparingly, there is little for a pay structure to attach to. The $52,000 ninetieth percentile is a coordinator or hybrid role, not a senior assistant.

Because its outpatient practices staff clinical support differently. A location quotient of 0.77 across 16,650 jobs means the Commonwealth uses proportionally fewer dedicated medical assistant posts than the country as a whole, distributing rooming, documentation and clinical support across licensed nursing staff and administrative roles instead. That reduces demand for the role, and combined with a state that regulates none of it, produces a median 2.1% below the national figure on an unusually tight band.

It describes a job whose content Virginia does not define. Because the Commonwealth licenses nothing here, one medical assistant may be delegated injections, phlebotomy and clinical documentation while another does rooming and reception — and both appear in SOC 31-9092. The published figure is accurate for the mixture and tells you little about any specific post. The published hourly median of $21.51 alongside a clear description of delegated scope is the more useful basis for evaluating an offer.

Employer type and delegated scope, because almost nothing else can. A certified assistant in a large Virginia health system with a defined clinical scope earns more than an uncertified one in a small practice, and that is most of the narrow distance from the $38,840 twenty-fifth percentile to the $46,570 seventy-fifth. Specialty practice — cardiology, orthopaedics, dermatology — pays above general primary care. Beyond that the band closes, and the $52,000 top decile belongs to clinical coordinator and hybrid roles rather than to assistants.