Physician Assistants in Minnesota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$99,519
after federal, FICA and Minnesota tax
Tax takes
$41,671
29.5% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$101,120
Minnesota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Minnesota — 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
$141,190
Kept after tax
$99,519
Worth in national money
$101,120
State rank
12
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Minnesota pays physician assistants a middle wage of $141,190, ranking 12 of 51 states and sitting about 3.91% above the national middle.
- Within Minnesota this is well-paid work. Of 490 occupations with published figures in the state, physician assistants ranks 19 — in the top quarter of everything people do there.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $141,190, tax leaves $99,519, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $101,120 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $147,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- Minnesota's median for physician assistants is $141,190, about 3.91% above the national figure and 12 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Ranked against every occupation Minnesota publishes a median for, physician assistants sits 19 of 490 — the upper quartile of the state's wage distribution. National standing and within-state standing are separate questions, and a job can occupy very different positions on each.
- Because Minnesota sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for physician assistants — median $141,190 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $99,519 retained, $101,120 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $147,630 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 | $112,390 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $141,190 |
| Top tenth earn over | $183,320 |
| This salary | $141,190 |
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 Minnesota | $99,519 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $107,769 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,783 |
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 | $129,119 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,908 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 98 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $141,190 as a midpoint for Minnesota, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $112,390 and the ninetieth is $183,320 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- In Minnesota the take-home figure of $99,519, from $141,190, 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 19 of 490 occupations here.
- One number stands for prices across all of Minnesota, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $101,120, the adjusted value of that $141,190 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 19 of 490 in the state.
- The Minnesota median of $141,190 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $112,390 to $183,320. 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 Minnesota is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $99,519 from $141,190. 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 19 of 490 locally.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Minnesota, so $101,120 — the adjusted value of that $141,190 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 19 of 490 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 $147,630 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $112,390 and the top tenth $183,320, so most people doing this work in Minnesota sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in Minnesota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $101,120 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
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; Minnesota then takes its own share, leaving $99,519.
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 Minnesota is $147,630. 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 ($112,390 to $183,320) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Minnesota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Minnesota'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 $101,120 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 $99,519 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Minnesota 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.