Physician Assistants in New Jersey
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$116,151
after federal, FICA and New Jersey tax
Tax takes
$49,539
29.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$106,675
New Jersey costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in New Jersey — 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
$165,690
Kept after tax
$116,151
Worth in national money
$106,675
State rank
1
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for physician assistants is strong here. New Jersey's middle earner gets $165,690, putting the state 1 of 51 — about 21.94% ahead of the national figure.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 490 occupations New Jersey reports, physician assistants comes in at 19 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- New Jersey is an expensive state, and the adjusted figure shows it. From $165,690 the take-home is $116,151; in national-average money that behaves like $106,675. The average lands at $162,100, below the middle of the range.
- For physician assistants, New Jersey sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $165,690, ranking 1 of 51 and running about 21.94% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Physician assistants ranks 19 of 490 occupations by median in New Jersey, 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.
- Take-home for physician assistants in New Jersey, on $165,690, is $116,151; deflated by the state's price level, $106,675. ⚠️ The deflator is statewide, so it understates the erosion in the state's metropolitan areas and overstates it outside them. At $162,100 the mean undershoots the median, an inversion of the usual skew.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Physician Assistants
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $117,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $165,690 |
| Top tenth earn over | $207,000 |
| This salary | $165,690 |
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 New Jersey | $116,151 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $124,515 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$21,460 |
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 | $153,452 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$30,511 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $165,690 as a midpoint for New Jersey, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $117,860 and the ninetieth is $207,000 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $116,151 take-home in New Jersey comes from $165,690. 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 19 of 490.
- Two cautions on $106,675, the adjusted value of that $165,690 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of New Jersey. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 19 of 490 locally.
- The New Jersey median of $165,690 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $117,860 to $207,000. 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 $116,151, from $165,690, assumes a single New Jersey 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 19 of 490 locally, and the state ranks 1 of 51 for it.
- This $106,675 adjusted figure, worked from $165,690, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 19 of 490 in the state. The occupation ranks 19 of 490 locally.
Questions people ask
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Most of these jobs pay within a close range — $117,860 at the tenth percentile, $207,000 at the ninetieth.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
Not on its own. Prices in New Jersey run above the national level, so the same dollars buy less here. Adjusted for that, this pay is worth $106,675 — the wage did not change, only what it covers.
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 New Jersey adds its own income tax on top — which is why $116,151 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.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($117,860 to $207,000) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to New Jersey rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
New Jersey's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $106,675 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 $116,151 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and New Jersey 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.