Physician assistants in Rhode Island were the second most highly paid in the country on average in 2014 according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. With an average salary of $111,180, physician assistants earned 14.3% more on average than PAs in the rest of the country.
The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training estimated that the number of physician assistants would increase by 15.6% between 2012 and 2022, generating an average of 93 job openings a year. Since the demand for physician assistants has been increasing dramatically as more people enjoy coverage under the Affordable Care Act, it is likely that this projection would be even higher now.
A 2009 study published in Human Resources for Health indicated that Rhode Island had the third highest rate of physician assistants per capita in the country in 2007. Physician assistants in Rhode Island are subject to relatively flexible supervision requirements, leading the Rhode Island Academy of Physician Assistants to identify the state as the 4th best to practice in.
Rhode Island offers an array of practice settings for physician assistants ranging from an Ivy League teaching hospital to rural health facilities to small private practices to a Level I Trauma center. According to a 2014 annual report released by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, 15.9% of Rhode Island’s certified physician assistants practiced in primary care, while 84.1% were employed in non-primary care settings.
Salaries for Physician Assistants throughout Rhode Island
The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training reported that experienced physician assistants earned an average salary of $132,787 in contrast to an average of $88,338 for physician assistants just entering the workforce (2014). The median salary for physician assistants in Rhode Island was $108,888—$13,068 higher than the national median for this profession.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics offers a breadth of detail on the salaries of physician assistants in the Providence-Fall River-Warwick area. The median salary for physician assistants in this metropolitan area was substantially higher than the national median of $95,820: