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Physician assistant pay in Los Angeles, CA is a ladder, not a point: $99,600 at the 10th percentile versus $221,000 at the 90th, around a $162,000 median. Seniority, setting, and specialty explain more of that spread than the city’s average wage.
Physician assistants examine, diagnose, and treat patients under a physician's supervision. Healthcare pay in Los Angeles, CA is sensitive to setting, shifts, and public vs private employers. The $162,000 median is a useful average, not what a night-shift specialist or a clinic role will actually land. Long-term employment for this occupation is modeled at about +27% over a decade — a national sketch, not a Los Angeles, CA hiring guarantee.
The percentiles on this page are observed metro figures for Physician Assistant in Los Angeles, CA, not a national median multiplied by a pay index. That matters: you are looking at how this labour market actually priced the role, including local industry mix. They are still estimates of the market — not a promise of what one employer will offer.
Among the 9 United States metros we can compare for this role, Los Angeles ranks 3 by median. Washington DC leads this comparison at $211,000 (+30% vs Los Angeles), while Chicago sits at $128,000. Use those gaps to test a relocation thesis: a 15% cash raise that lands in a much more expensive metro can disappear in rent.
Los Angeles’s COL index (100) sits nearer the global baseline, so headline and adjusted pay are not far apart ($162,000 vs $162,000). Rent still matters: the 1-bedroom model is $1,650 / month, about 15% of take-home, with leftover near $7,700.
If you are comparing a Los Angeles office offer with a location-flexible one, the United States national median for this role is about $147,000. Local pay is 10% higher — a $15,000 gap. Remote employers often anchor to the national figure; on-site employers in Los Angeles are anchoring to this page.
World Bank consumer-price inflation for United States was about 2.9% in 2024; an illustrative model tied to inflation and the occupation’s outlook suggests pay has risen about 24% over the last few years. H-1B / employment-based green card is the usual skilled-hire route (selective for typical hires): Most skilled foreign hires enter via employer-sponsored H-1B (lottery-capped) or specialty routes; permanent residence usually follows an employment-based petition. At 1.8× United States GDP per capita, this median is around a typical national living standard. Unemployment was about 4.2% in 2025. None of that is tax, immigration, or career advice — run the calculators and confirm rules officially.
How to read a physician assistant offer in Los Angeles
Start with gross cash, not the recruiting headline. If an offer lands near $162,000, you are in the lower half of this metro’s observed distribution; near $162,000 you are already paid like a stronger local hire. Then subtract a realistic tax path (simplified national effective rate here is about 17%, leaving $134,386 a year) and a housing number you would actually accept — not only the $1,650 model.
Because the 90th percentile is about 2.2× the 10th, two physician assistant jobs in Los Angeles can be different careers that share a title. Ask what sits in the package (bonus, overtime, equity, on-call) before you treat $162,000 as a fair target.
Demand and the physician assistant pipeline
Occupation-level employment for physician assistants is projected at about +27% over ten years. That is a national sketch of demand, not a forecast that Los Angeles will hire at that rate. Local openings still follow Los Angeles’s industry mix — hospitals, studios, public employers, or product companies — which is already baked into the observed percentiles more than into the outlook percentage.
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