Physician assistants travel to Washington, DC from nearby Maryland, Virginia, and beyond for the high salaried positions available here. In 2014, the United States Department of Labor released salary statistics showing physician assistants in DC earned an average annual of $92,550 and an average hourly wage of $44.50.
Aspiring physician assistants will continue to find promising job opportunities in DC. In fact, employment projections released by the federal government suggest that the number of physician assistants practicing in DC will increase from 590 in 2012 to 690 by 2022. This 17% occupational growth change is largely attributed to a large aging population of baby boomers, increased incidents of chronic disease, a widening scope of practice, and workers leaving or retiring from the field.
According to the District of Columbia’s Department of Employment Services, the following local employers posted online job advertisements searching for physician assistants in September 2015:
- MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
- GW Medical Faculty Associates
- CHSi
- Envision Healthcare Corporation
- Integrated Dermatology of K Street
- Medstar
- MIVC
- Sibley Memorial Hospital
- Staff Care, Inc.
- George Washington University
Experienced Physician Assistants Earn Top Dollar in Washington, DC
As the medical field continues to embrace a more specialized workforce, physician assistants are gaining postsecondary training in specialty areas such as family medicine, urology, and cardiology to heighten the odds of qualifying for more high-paying positions. In fact, most job advertisements posted with the District of Columbia Academy of Physician Assistants (DCAPA) in 2015 set forth eligibility requirements that included three to five years of specialized experience in areas like neurosurgery, outpatient care, orthopedic surgery, primary care, and otolaryngology to better accommodate a specific health care department’s needs.
Salary statistics compiled by the United States Department of Labor reveal that experienced physician assistants in DC usually make more the twice what their inexperienced counterparts earn.
For instance, in 2014 entry-level physician assistants working in the nation’s capital received an annual average salary of $57,600 and an average hourly wage of $27.69, while mid-level professionals were offered an average annual salary of $96,400 and an average hourly wage of $96,400. Yet, the most experienced physician assistants still took home a significantly greater average annual salary of $128,800 and an average hourly wage of $61.92.
Physician Assistant Salary Differences by Location in DC
Physician assistants working in DC typically find that pay rates are often affected by geographic area of employment. For instance, in 2014 the United States Department of Labor reported that physician assistants in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria region collected an average annual salary of $91,370 and an average hourly wage of $43.93, while those situated in the metropolitan division of this region were given a slightly lower average annual salary of $89,880 and an average hourly wage of $43.21.
The following data table expresses a more in-depth examination of physician assistant salaries for DC’s two major employment hubs (US Department of Labor, 2014):