Medical Assistant Salary Calculator

1. Leave the pay type on hourly rate and enter your base rate. Choose annual salary for a salaried office or lead role.
2. Enter regular hours, weeks worked, and any average overtime hours with the multiplier your employer pays.
3. Read your gross pay per year, month and week, then the BLS percentile. Enter a second offer to compare two practices.

What each result tells you:

The default is the BLS median rate of $21.97 an hour, which comes to $45,697.60 for a 40 hour week over 52 weeks.

A medical assistant salary calculator is a tool that works out gross pay from an hourly rate and a schedule, then measures the rate against official wage statistics for the occupation.

The benchmark is the Bureau of Labor Statistics code 31-9092, Medical Assistants. BLS defines the job as administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of a physician. Administrative duties include scheduling, medical records and billing. Clinical duties include vital signs, medical histories, drawing blood and giving medications as directed.

The code excludes physician assistants, who have their own BLS code, 29-1071. The names sound alike, and the occupations are different.

The tool adds no premium for certification, specialty, setting or years of service. BLS publishes no national multipliers for those, so the calculator does not invent them.

The calculator totals straight-time pay and overtime pay for the year, then finds where your base rate falls among the BLS wage percentiles.

1. Rate. The hourly rate is used directly. A salary is divided by regular hours times weeks.
2. Overtime. Overtime hours are paid at the rate times your multiplier. Federal law sets a minimum of time and one-half after 40 hours in a workweek for covered, nonexempt employees. The overtime pay calculator covers a single pay period in detail.
3. Periods. Monthly pay is the annual total divided by 12. Weekly pay is the annual total divided by weeks worked.
4. Benchmark. A rate of $21.00 falls between the 25th percentile of $18.50 and the median of $21.97. Interpolation puts it near the 43rd percentile.

BLS wages cover straight-time pay only. Overtime pay, shift differentials and year-end bonuses are excluded, which is why the percentile ignores your extra hours.

A medical assistant in a physician office earns $21.00 an hour for 40 hours a week. The office closes for 2 unpaid weeks, so she works 50 weeks. Late clinics add an average of 2 overtime hours a week at time and one-half.

1. Straight-time pay: $21.00 x 40 x 50 = $42,000.00.
2. Overtime rate: $21.00 x 1.5 = $31.50 an hour.
3. Overtime pay: $31.50 x 2 x 50 = $3,150.00.
4. Annual gross: $45,150.00. Monthly gross: $3,762.50. Weekly gross in a worked week: $903.00.
5. Base rate against BLS: -$0.97 an hour against the median, or -4.4%.

A full-time year at her base rate equals $43,680.00. Her straight-time pay is $1,680.00 lower than that because of the two unpaid weeks.

Medical assistants earned a median of $21.97 an hour in May 2025, or $45,690 a year. The mean was $22.17 an hour, or $46,120 a year.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 31-9092 Medical Assistants, national estimates. Read on 2026-10-02. BLS published a dollar figure for every percentile of this occupation.

The wage range is narrow. A medical assistant at the 75th percentile earns $10,710 a year more than one at the 25th percentile. The 90th percentile is 29.8 percent above the median.

Employer Type

Outpatient care centers paid a median of $48,560 a year, the highest of the large employers. Offices of physicians paid $45,520 and employ 56 percent of medical assistants. Offices of other health practitioners paid $38,400, which is $10,160 less than outpatient centers.

Highest Paying Industries

Junior colleges pay the highest hourly mean, $29.55. Most of the top industries sit outside direct patient care and employ few medical assistants.

State

Washington pays the highest state mean wage at $28.17 an hour. California has the most medical assistant jobs, 117,060.

Clinical or Administrative Focus

BLS notes that medical assistants often focus on either clinical or administrative tasks, although some do both. Tasks that assistants are allowed to do vary by state. BLS reports one wage for the whole occupation.

Certification

Most states do not require certification, but employers may prefer or require it. BLS publishes no wage by certification status.

Medical assistants earn close to pharmacy technicians and phlebotomists at the median, and $1.65 an hour more than nursing assistants. Medical assistants are the largest group of the three, with 817,870 jobs.

Source: BLS OEWS national estimates, May 2025. Read on 2026-10-02.

The medical assistant median is $490 below the $46,180 median for other healthcare support occupations and 10.4 percent below the $50,980 median for all occupations.

Comparing a Clinic with an Outpatient Center

Enter each rate with the hours on offer. At 36 hours a week, $22.80 an hour pays $4,773.60 more a year than $20.25 and moves the rate from the 38th to the 62nd percentile.

Checking a Salaried Offer

A salary of $45,000 for a 40 hour week equals $21.63 an hour, near the 48th percentile. For a pay-period view of the same salary, use the salary calculator.

Preparing for a Raise Conversation

The gap to the BLS median shows how far your rate is from the national midpoint in dollars and percent.

Planning Before a Training Program

Enter the 25th percentile rate of $18.50 and the median to see a realistic early pay range for a full-time year.

Medical assistants typically complete a postsecondary program, such as a certificate or an associate degree. BLS says programs take about 1 or 2 years. Some assistants enter with a high school diploma and learn on the job over several months.

BLS projects employment to grow 13 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. That is 107,600 new jobs, for a total of 941,500.

About 109,700 openings are projected each year. BLS ties the demand to a larger older population that needs more medical services in physician offices, hospitals and other care settings.

1. Mixing Up Medical Assistants and Physician Assistants

They are separate occupations with separate BLS codes. Use the physician assistant page for that job.

2. Entering 52 Weeks When the Office Closes

Unpaid closure weeks lower annual pay. Enter the weeks you are really paid.

3. Reading the Annual Percentile on a 36 Hour Week

BLS annual wages assume 2,080 hours. Use the hourly percentile to judge the rate.

4. Counting a Bonus in the Hourly Rate

BLS excludes year-end and non-production bonuses. Leave them out of the rate.

5. Expecting a Wide Pay Range

The middle half of the occupation earns between $18.50 and $23.65 an hour. Large jumps usually need a different occupation.

The gross pay arithmetic is exact, and the benchmark is a sample estimate. BLS lists a relative standard error of 0.3 percent for the mean wage and 1.2 percent for employment in this occupation.

Medical assistants earned a median of $21.97 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 25th percentile was $18.50 and the 75th percentile was $23.65.

The mean annual wage was $46,120 in May 2025, and the median was $45,690. Both figures assume a full-time year of 2,080 hours.

Twenty dollars an hour is below the national median. It sits near the 36th percentile and equals $41,600.00 over a 2,080 hour year.

Twenty-five dollars an hour is high for the occupation. It sits near the 79th percentile nationally and equals $52,000.00 over a 2,080 hour year.

Washington has the highest state mean wage at $28.17 an hour in the BLS May 2025 data. Alaska, California, the District of Columbia and Oregon follow.

Hospitals pay slightly more at the median. BLS reports $46,910 a year in hospitals and $45,520 in offices of physicians for May 2025.

BLS publishes no wage by certification status. It states that employers may prefer or require certification, although most states do not. Compare job postings in your area to see the local difference.

The 90th percentile wage is $28.52 an hour, or $59,310 a year. One in ten medical assistants earns more than that before overtime.

Covered, nonexempt employees do. Federal law requires at least time and one-half the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Ask your employer which status applies to your job, because state rules differ.

Yes. BLS projects 13 percent growth from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average, with about 109,700 openings each year.

• BLS OEWS Profiles, May 2025 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Choose May 2025 and select 31-9092 Medical Assistants for the national wage percentiles, mean wage, employment, and industry and state tables. Read 2026-10-02.
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Medical Assistants (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Duties, entry education, training, median pay by industry and the 2025 to 2035 outlook. Read 2026-10-02.
• BLS OEWS frequently asked questions (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Defines wages as straight-time gross pay without overtime or shift differentials, and names who the survey covers. Read 2026-10-02.
• Overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division). Time and one-half the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek for covered, nonexempt employees. Read 2026-10-02.