Physician Assistants in Arizona
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$100,336
after federal, FICA and Arizona tax
Tax takes
$34,314
25.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$99,239
Arizona costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arizona — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$134,650
Kept after tax
$100,336
Worth in national money
$99,239
State rank
26
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Arizona sits in the middle of the pack for physician assistants. The median is $134,650, ranking 26 of 51 states with figures. Close enough to the national middle that where you live matters more than the headline suggests.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 491 occupations Arizona reports, physician assistants comes in at 15 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $134,650, tax leaves $100,336, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $99,239 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $140,850, since top earners drag the number up.
- Arizona occupies the middle band for physician assistants: a median of $134,650, ranking 26 of 51. Where nominal pay is close to the national figure, the tax and price adjustments below carry proportionally more weight in determining the real outcome.
- Physician assistants ranks 15 of 491 occupations by median in Arizona, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Because Arizona sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for physician assistants — median $134,650 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $100,336 retained, $99,239 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $140,850 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physician Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $106,030 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $134,650 |
| Top tenth earn over | $174,420 |
| This salary | $134,650 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Arizona | $100,336 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $103,299 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$7,063 |
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $130,314 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$10,042 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $134,650 as a midpoint for Arizona, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $106,030 and the ninetieth is $174,420 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $100,336 take-home in Arizona comes from $134,650. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 15 of 491.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arizona, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $99,239, the adjusted value of that $134,650 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 15 of 491 in the state.
- The Arizona median of $134,650 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $106,030 to $174,420. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $100,336, from $134,650, assumes a single Arizona filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 15 of 491 locally, and the state ranks 26 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arizona, so $99,239 — the adjusted value of that $134,650 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 15 of 491 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $140,850, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $106,030 and the top tenth $174,420, so most people doing this work in Arizona sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in Arizona run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $99,239 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Four deductions, stacked. The federal layer and the two payroll taxes apply wherever you work; Arizona then takes its own share, leaving $100,336.
Can I compare this job across every state?
All 51 jurisdictions report this work, which makes the ranking a like-for-like one.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Arizona is $140,850. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($106,030 to $174,420) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arizona rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Arizona's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $99,239 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $100,336 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arizona income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.