Average MEDICAL ASSISTANT SALARY RATES Across North America
I’ve come across different websites that provide the potential salary ranges and payscale for Medical assistants. Getting the Top Pay would seem to be the top priority for most people when searching for a Job. If you are interested in learning more about the best areas with the best salary rates in the career, then I suggest that you continue reading this article.
What is the Usual Medical Assistant Hourly Salary?
Medical Assistant Salary Rates are Based On Several Factors
When looking for a job, we usually check for the hourly rates because we can then easily determine our overtime and holiday pay by multiplying our hourly rate twice. When you determine the hourly salary rate of a medical assistant, you can then compare the potential earnings with other healthcare professionals.
If you want to go for a hourly salary rate of $40 and above, you might want to consider Nursing and not medical assisting, because a salary rate of $40/hr is unheard of, unless you work holidays. Which most likely won’t happen as physician offices are closed during holidays. They are considered private practitioners and as such take the holiday vacations off.
If you are thinking of an hourly salary rate of $15 – $25 per hour, then Medical Assisting might be the right career for you. Of course, it’s in a lower rate than nurses simply because finishing a Medical Assistant course is much easier than finishing a Nursing degree which could basically take about 4 years.
Because the Average Annual Salary of Medical Assistants is at $30,000 USD and the High End is at $40,000 per year, I’ve shared a document below that shows the computation of hourly rates together with vacation rates.
** Disclaimer – This is just a sample computation and doesn’t reflect the actual potential salary from a Medical Assistant Job. The Hourly Rate for Medical Assistants might increase or decrease based on numerous factors.
What is the Starting Medical Assistant Payscale Range?
Getting More Experience, Education and Certification Increases your Payscale Potential
We all need to start at the bottom payscale range if we don’t have any experience, credentials and certification as a Medical Assistant. Although medical assistants are not required to get certified or registered, it would be for your best interest to do so because this has a HUGE impact on the Medical Assistant Payscale negotiations when looking for a job.
If you don’t have any credentials, education, experience, it would now be harder to get employed as a Medical assistant simply because you will be facing fierce competition from people who have all the paperwork and experience.
If you are lucky to get employed as a Medical assistant, you might start a little bit higher than the minimum salary wage in your area.
But if you are certified or registered by the Accredited Institutions you can expect starting salaries of $12 and above. Of course, if you have few years of Medical Assisting experience this can help increase your hourly rates.
How Can You Increase the Chances of Landing a Higher Medical Assistant Hourly Rate?
Increase Your Earning Potential By Getting Educated and Certified.
Two Things that can increase your Medical Assistant Salary Rates even without experience:
1. EDUCATION
2. CERTIFICATION
Although someone can hire anyone and become a medical assistant on the job, this is not the norm when Employers seek for Medical Assistants. Because of the increased demand for Medical Assistants and increased competition in the Medical assisting field, physicians and employers have become more meticulous when selecting a potential candidate.
Because it is now easier to find another medical assistant for their clinics, they usually give the job vacancy to the person who has the most credentials, education and experience.
We can’t do anything about the Experience part because we really have to earn that Work experience. Working from a Fastfood chain is not the same as work experience for medical assisting. Although work experience as a Secretary from a Private firm might work on the Administrative part of medical assisting. Some employers might consider this as experience and some might not.
Fortunately, a lot of community colleges and vocational schools now offer comprehensive and flexible Medical assisting programs for people who want to be prepared for their new career. When considering these schools, you must ask and research first if their Medical assisting programs are accredited by ABHES and CAAHEP. If they are not accredited by these two organizations, you will not be able to take certification and registration exams which are needed to complete your designation as Certified Medical Assistants or Registered Medical Assistants.
After finishing your Medical Assisting course, you’ll need to consider applying for Certification and Registration as a Medical Assistant. There are currently four institutions that provides these types of designation. Certification and Registration are the same and differ only on the institution who administered the procedures.
If you want to be called Certified Medical Assistants, you might want to consider going with AAMA or the American Association of Medical Assistants. If you want to consider being designated as Registered Medical Assistants, you’ll need to register with AMT or the Association of Medical Technologists. Don’t worry, they provide registration for Medical Assistants too even if they are called AMT.
Will I Be Able To Match Registered Nurse Salaries and Wages in the Medical Assisting Field?
Can I potentially earn more than $40,000 per year in the Medical Assisting field?
By just being a Medical Assistant, even if you are certified and registered, it would be very hard to see employments that offer $40,000 and above per year. The high end payscale for Medical Assistants is already at the Top of $30,000K or $39,000 per year.
But if you want to see salaries in the Medical Assisting career that earns more than 40 Grand a year, you can consider teaching Medical Assisting in schools and colleges. The average range of salary when teaching in this field is at $49,000 annually.
Of course it’s a different path and How to Teach and Become a medical assistant teacher is not covered here on our website. You may want to consider applying for a position if you have the work experience, credentials and education.
It is not unusual for Other Allied health professionals like nurses and midwives teach medical assisting to other students.
What’s Next?
Consider a lot of factors when searching for a Job as a medical assistant. The income from a medical assistant salary should just be one of the factors that you have to consider. You’ll need to consider the cost of living in areas that might have a higher salary or hourly rate. California is one of the cities that has a higher payscale for medical assistants but it also has one of the highest costs of living in America.
If you have work experience as a Medical Assistant, then you are in luck, because you can use this as a Negotiating point when determining your salary. Then get the proper education from accredited schools and become certified or registered as a Medical Assistant.
Hopefully these tips would help you find the Medical Assistant Salary that suites you best!
Thanks for Reading my Article!