Top 10 Highest Paying Specialties in the PA Profession in 2023

Cardiovascular/cardiothoracic Surgery Specialty Tops 2023 Compensation

June 6, 2024

By AAPA Research

The PA profession includes clinicians who work in over 60 specialties, ranging from family medicine and urgent care to transplant surgery and dermatology. The amount of money, or compensation, a PA earns can vary significantly by specialty. Compensation may be comprised of base pay and/or bonuses. Within the AAPA Salary survey, base pay is collected as salaries, hourly wages, or guaranteed pay within a productivity model.

To assess the overall compensation of PAs by specialty, we annualized hourly wages to better compare the compensation for PAs paid hourly with those with a productivity pay model or a salary. In addition to the base pay, we added any bonus amount a PA received in 2023 to their reported compensation to produce their total compensation for the year. The clinicians in the 10 specialties within Figure 1 had the highest median total compensation among all those surveyed in 2024.

Figure 1: Top 10 Highest Paying Specialties for PAs in 2023

Only specialties with 100 or more respondents nationwide are included. Median total compensation includes PAs who worked more than 32 hours and were paid a base salary, an hourly wage, or had productivity pay. Hourly wage data was annualized. Total compensation includes bonuses awarded in 2023.

The following sections detail the median compensation amount, median bonus, and hours worked for each specialty listed in Figure 1.

10. General surgery: Total Compensation $133,060
Approximately 2.9% of PAs are working within general surgery, and they have a median of 7 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (87.5%) of general surgery PAs are paid a salary and 47.3% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $131,000 and their bonus was $6,992. They worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2023.

9. Hospital medicine: Total Compensation $128,980
Approximately 3.1% of PAs are working within hospital medicine, and they have a median of 5 years of experience. In terms of compensation, most (79.5%) hospital medicine PAs are paid a salary and 48.5% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $125,000 and their bonus was $7,750. They worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2023.

8. Plastic surgery: Total Compensation $134,688
Approximately 1.1% of PAs are working within plastic surgery, and they have a median of 7 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (88.8%) of plastic surgery PAs are paid a salary and 53.3% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $128,000 and their bonus was $5,600. They worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2023.

7. Urgent care: Total Compensation $137,700
Approximately 5.5% of PAs are working within urgent care, and they have a median of 7 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the most common compensation for urgent care PAs (48.6%) was a salary and 62.5% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $125,000 and their bonus was $5,600. They worked a median of 38 hours per week in 2023.

6. Occupational medicine: Total Compensation $138,000
Approximately, 1.2% of PAs are working within occupational medicine, and they have a median of 15 years of experience. Among occupational medicine PAs, a majority (80.7%) of were paid a salary and 45.6% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $133,588 and their bonus was $5,061. They worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2023.

5. Neurosurgery: Total Compensation $138,509
Approximately 2.4% of PAs are working within neurosurgery, and they have a median of 6 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (91.3%) are paid a salary and 54.1% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $130,000 and their median bonus was $6,000. They worked a median of 45 hours per week in 2023.

4. Critical care: Total Compensation $139,000
Approximately 2.3% of PAs are working within critical care, and they have a median of 6 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (79.4%) are paid a salary and 48.0% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $129,750 and their median bonus was $7,500. They worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2023.

3. Emergency Medicine: Total Compensation $141,440
Approximately 6.7% of PAs are working within emergency medicine, and they have a median of 6 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (51.7%) are paid hourly and 54.8% received a bonus. Their median hourly wage was $75.00 and their median bonus was $8,000. They worked a median of 38 hours per week in 2023.

2. Dermatology: Total Compensation $150,000
Approximately 3.2% of PAs are working within dermatology, and they have a median of 6 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (65.8%) are paid a salary and 62.9% received a bonus. Their median base salary was $120,000 and their median bonus was $15,000. They worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2023.

1.Cardiovascular/cardiothoracic surgery: Total Compensation $158,470
Approximately 2.4% of PAs are working within cardiovascular/cardiothoracic surgery, and they have a median of 7 years of experience. In terms of compensation, the majority (83.8%) are paid a salary and 52.4% received a bonus. Their base salary was $150,000 and their bonus was $8,000. They worked a median of 45 hours per week in 2023.

Want more information on career opportunities in these specialties? The recently relaunched PA JobSource career exploration platform features an interactive map with tens of thousands of employers. JobSource also offers key community and professional insights to help PAs make the best possible career decisions, including median home price, median gross rent, and median compensation data from the AAPA Salary Report. Plus, you can directly message employers who are hiring now or open to networking or let the AAPA team make a tailored introduction to employers who don’t have advertised openings.

PA JobSource is available exclusively to AAPA fellow, student, and retired members. Not a member? Be sure to join today for access to the AAPA Digital Salary Report and other key career advancing tools within PA JobSource.

Sean Kolhoff, Ph.D., is AAPA’s Senior Research Analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you have additional questions on PA JobSource, please contact [email protected].

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