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Each year, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) surveys more than 100,000 physician associates (PAs) to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the PA workforce.
This year’s results, published in the 10th annual Statistical Profile of Board-Certified PAs by Specialty Report, highlight important trends in this unique population, including evolving demographic information and practice characteristics.
While these data points demonstrate the continued impact of PAs in providing the highest quality healthcare across the country, one particular finding stood out. There remains, even in a profession that is, by NCCPA’s own account, nearly two-thirds female, a significant gender pay gap.
About Medscape Data
Medscape continually surveys physicians and other medical professionals about key practice challenges and current issues, creating high-impact analyses. For example, the Medscape Physician Assistant Job Market Report 2025 found that:
- About 60%-67% of PA respondents said the current demand for PAs is “very high” or “high” in their local, state, or regional market.
- Only 7%-9% of PAs plan to switch jobs in the next year.
- PA respondents thought base salary, schedule, and professional development reimbursement wielded the most leverage for negotiation, while sign-on bonuses and paid time off wielded the least leverage.
The report notes that male PAs, on average, earn more than $20,000 more than their female counterparts. Andrzej Kozikowski, PhD, senior director of Research at NCCPA, said, sadly, this kind of gender gap is not surprising and can be seen across different medical roles.
“Even among nurses, which about 88% of nurses are female, we see this kind of discrepancy. Some call it the ‘glass elevator’ for men,” Kozikowski said. “At a recent conference, someone presented research on newly minted physicians who just completed their residencies. There, too, we see the same pattern. Women made less money. Unfortunately, this kind of gender pay gap is very consistent.”
This year’s statistical profile considered income levels for both men and women working 40 hours or more per week. They found an average gap of $20,892 across all specialties, with the smallest difference in neurology ($10,361) and the largest one in obstetrics-gynecology ($34,069). Yet, men made more than women in every single specialty.
Raquelle Akavan, DMSc, PA-C, an assistant professor at the University of Lynchburg in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the president and founder of PA Moms, a special interest group associated with the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA), said this continuing pay gap is “incredibly concerning.” She said the NCCPA’s survey has garnered a lot of discussion in PA Moms’ online community spaces — and many female PAs are frustrated by it.
“This reflects a significant and systemic inequity that really threatens retention and morale for PAs. It is also something that could ultimately affect patient care,” she said. “Because women are the majority in this field, the fact that women continue to make less hurts everyone. And it should be a priority to fix it.”
How, exactly, to do that, however, remains a challenge. Kozikowski noted that this kind of demographic data does not give much insight into why this gap exists. Yet, other research studies do provide some clues.
“Some potential explanations are that you’ve taken time off work or left the workplace for a time, breaking your employment trajectory and ability to earn more,” he said. “The literature has studies that suggest taking off time from work for family responsibilities can result in a lower salary. And we know women tend to take more of the brunt of family responsibilities than men do.”
He added that the statistical profile also suggests that men, on average, tend to select higher-paying specialties, which might help to increase their salary over time. Yet, even when the research team controlled for different variables that might influence salary, including things like specialty, education level, geographic region, number of hours worked, number of patients seen per week, etc., there was still a significant pay gap. In fact, there was still a gap seen when PAs first entered the workforce after training.
Todd Pickard, MMSc, PA-C, president of the AAPA, whose organization has also published salary data demonstrating a lack of wage parity between genders, said he believes addressing the pay gap should start with employers.
“Unfortunately, there are too many places where organizations are not giving men and women equitable credit for their experience, work history, and performance,” he said. “That’s something we need to address.”
Akavan agreed — and added that more employers should be more transparent about current employee salaries and how they calculate compensation for new or promoted employees.
“Being able to publish salaries, so others can see what their peers are marking, would definitely help us better address this gap,” she said.
Finally, Akavan said she would like to see more female PAs negotiate for equitable salaries if they haven’t done so.
“There’s a lot of research that says, regardless of profession, women are less likely to negotiate salary,” she said. “That tells me that mentorship and negotiation training is important. If it started as early as undergraduate or graduate school, more women could use that to achieve parity.”
However, more recent research has challenged the notion that women are simply not negotiating salaries the way men do. In fact, some research finds that women negotiate as often as men but don’t get the results men do.
Pickard wholeheartedly agreed — and said this is another reason why salary and demographic surveys like those conducted by NCCPA and the PPA are so important to the greater PA community.
PAs can look at the published survey averages and use them as a jumping-off point for negotiation. He said that when he started as a PA, he received a lot of “lowball” offers and was able to tell those employers, “That number does not comport with the national salary averages.”
“Look at the data and get informed,” he said. “Then, when you start conversations for employment, come armed with this knowledge. If you get a low offer, use the data to question it and ask for what you’re worth. These are the kind of numbers that can empower you to set the right kind of expectations about compensation and salary from the very beginning.”
Kayt Sukel is a healthcare and science writer based outside Houston.
