Physician Assistants in Iowa
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$98,872
after federal, FICA and Iowa tax
Tax takes
$35,898
26.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$111,384
Iowa costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Iowa — 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
$134,770
Kept after tax
$98,872
Worth in national money
$111,384
State rank
23
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Middling, nationally. Iowa pays physician assistants around $134,770 at the midpoint, 23 of 51 states. The interesting numbers on this page are the two below it.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Iowa. It ranks 10 out of 493 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $134,770 you keep $98,872 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $111,384 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $139,870, since top earners drag the number up.
- For physician assistants the Iowa median is $134,770, ranking 23 of 51 states reporting. Mid-band nominal positions are the ones most frequently reordered by the adjustments, because no large wage premium exists to absorb a state's tax or price level.
- Within Iowa, physician assistants ranks 10 of 493 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- Retained pay in Iowa is $98,872 after the full tax stack, from $134,770. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $111,384 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $139,870 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 | $102,330 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $134,770 |
| Top tenth earn over | $182,940 |
| This salary | $134,770 |
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 Iowa | $98,872 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $103,381 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$4,997 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
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 | $128,172 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,104 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $134,770 as a midpoint for Iowa, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $102,330 and the ninetieth is $182,940 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Iowa the take-home figure of $98,872, from $134,770, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 10 of 493 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Iowa, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $111,384, the adjusted value of that $134,770 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 10 of 493 in the state.
- The Iowa median of $134,770 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $102,330 to $182,940. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Take-home for Iowa is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $98,872 from $134,770. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 10 of 493 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Iowa, so $111,384 — the adjusted value of that $134,770 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 10 of 493 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $139,870 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $102,330 at the tenth percentile, $182,940 at the ninetieth.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $111,384.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Iowa adds its own income tax on top — which is why $98,872 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
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 Iowa is $139,870. 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 ($102,330 to $182,940) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Iowa rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Iowa's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $111,384 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $98,872 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Iowa 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.