Physician Assistant Salary in Pennsylvania 2026,
$127,070 Median | BLS Data by City

Pennsylvania physician assistants earn a median $127,070 a year, or $61.09 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with a band from $99,050 at the 10th percentile to $158,690 at the 90th. That is 6.5% below the national median of $135,880. The gap is a supply story rather than a demand one — Pennsylvania employs PAs at 1.43 times the national rate and hosts one of the country's largest concentrations of accredited PA programmes.

Lebanon, at $137,770, ahead of Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington $135,640, Reading $130,160, Johnstown $129,800 and Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton $129,680. All five sit above the $127,070 state median. Lebanon topping the table reflects a concentrated health system employer in a small market rather than a metropolitan premium — and it comes without the Philadelphia city wage tax or Philadelphia housing costs.

Either the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine or the State Board of Osteopathic Medicine, depending on the supervising physician's own licensure, both within the Department of State's Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. Licensure requires an ARC-PA accredited degree and NCCPA certification, plus a written agreement with a supervising physician that must be registered with the board and updated when the physician or practice changes.

It closes part of the gap. A flat 3.07% state rate on a $127,070 salary is considerably lighter than the progressive schedules in New Jersey, New York or Maryland, so an after-tax comparison is friendlier to Pennsylvania than the 6.5% gross gap suggests. The local Earned Income Tax of commonly around 1%, and the Philadelphia city wage tax for anyone working in the city, are the offsets to build in.

Supply. Pennsylvania hosts one of the largest concentrations of ARC-PA accredited programmes in the United States and employs physician assistants at 1.43 times the national rate. That combination — a large local pipeline feeding a large but finite health system market — puts employers in a stronger position than in states like Iowa, where a location quotient of 0.74 sits alongside near-national pay. Abundant supply, not weak demand, is what sets this wage.

That Pennsylvania is a buyer's market for this credential. Compare it directly with Iowa, which employs physician assistants at 0.74 of the national rate and pays within 0.8% of the national median. Same profession, same national certification, opposite conditions: Iowa cannot recruit enough PAs and pays the national rate to get them; Pennsylvania produces a great many and employs a great many, and its health systems do not need to bid up. For a new graduate the practical implication is that the competition in Pennsylvania is for the *good* posts — surgical, procedural, emergency — rather than for employment as such.

Specialty pooling and call. The $99,050-to-$158,690 range is overwhelmingly a specialty spread: an outpatient primary care PA and a surgical first assistant with a heavy call rota hold the same licence and appear on the same OEWS line. The figure also excludes call pay and productivity incentives, which are standard in Pennsylvania health system contracts and can be a substantial supplement — particularly in the rural hospitals where the base salary is lowest and the coverage burden highest.

Specialty, call and employer concentration. Specialty is the largest lever, moving a PA from the median to the $137,220 upper quartile. Call is second and is where much of the actual income difference between two similarly titled posts comes from. Employer concentration is the Pennsylvania-specific third: the state's advanced practice market is dominated by a small number of very large health systems, and their internal grade structures — rather than any open market negotiation — set most of what a Pennsylvania PA will be offered.