Physician Assistant Salaries in New Jersey

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development expects an increase of 32.8% in the number of jobs for physician assistants between 2012 and 2022.  This agency projects explosive levels of job growth in several counties, including Salem County where the number of PAs is expected to increase by 75% during this timeframe and Gloucester County where a 54% increase is expected. 

An additional factor that is fueling demand for physician assistants in New Jersey is the looming critical shortage of primary care physicians in the state.  A report published by the New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals predicted a shortage of 5,670 primary care physicians between 2008 and 2020. The authors of this report believe that one of the key solutions to this critical shortage is to increase the number of physician assistants in the state. 

New Jersey has a low number of physician assistants on a per capita basis according to a 2014 statistical analysis conducted by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.  Their analysis ranked New Jersey as having the 39th lowest rate of physician assistants in the country.

New Jersey’s Physician Assistants Earn Above the National Average

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development provides salary data for physician assistants in the state as of 2014.  Salaries for New Jersey’s physician assistants are substantially higher than the national averages reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics at all levels of experience.

For instance, the median salary among New Jersey’s physician assistants was $102,370 in 2015—$6,550 higher than the national median for PAs.  Experienced professionals in the 75th percentile earned $10,500 more than their colleagues in the same bracket earned on average nationwide, making an average of $125,260 in 2014.  Entry-level physician assistants in New Jersey earning within the 25th percentile were also better paid than their national counterparts.  Physician assistants in this bracket earned an average of $86,890 in New Jersey, while the national average was $82,090.

Salaries for Physician Assistants in New Jersey’s Major Metropolitan Areas

Salaries for New Jersey’s physician assistants varied according to location as reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014):

Area name
Employment
Annual mean wage
Atlantic City-Hammonton NJ
60
105770
Camden NJ Metropolitan Division
250
103960
Edison-New Brunswick NJ Metropolitan Division
390
107000
Newark-Union NJ-PA Metropolitan Division
460
97200
Trenton-Ewing NJ
100
105190

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