Physician Assistants in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$101,614
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$38,316
27.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$100,199
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$139,930
Kept after tax
$101,614
Worth in national money
$100,199
State rank
13
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Rhode Island is one of the better-paying states for physician assistants. The middle earner takes $139,930, which ranks 13 of 51 states with published figures. That is about 2.98% above the national middle.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 452 occupations Rhode Island reports, physician assistants comes in at 17 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $139,930, tax leaves $101,614, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $100,199 in comparable terms. Averages run higher here, $146,630, since top earners drag the number up.
- Rhode Island ranks 13 of 51 states publishing a median for physician assistants, at $139,930 — about 2.98% above the national median. A state's position on nominal pay is the figure wage tables report and the least informative of the three on this page, because it survives neither the tax adjustment nor the price adjustment intact for most occupations.
- Physician assistants ranks 17 of 452 occupations by median in Rhode Island, 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 Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for physician assistants — median $139,930 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $101,614 retained, $100,199 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $146,630 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 | $98,760 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $139,930 |
| Top tenth earn over | $200,030 |
| This salary | $139,930 |
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 Rhode Island | $101,614 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $106,908 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$9,817 |
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 | $132,184 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$13,957 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of physician assistants in Rhode Island earn under $139,930 and half over. The published range runs $98,760 at the tenth percentile to $200,030 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In Rhode Island the take-home figure of $101,614, from $139,930, 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 17 of 452 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $100,199, the adjusted value of that $139,930 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Rhode Island. 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 17 of 452 locally.
- Figures are distribution medians for physician assistants in Rhode Island, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $98,760 to $200,030; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for Rhode Island is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $101,614 from $139,930. 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 17 of 452 locally.
- This $100,199 adjusted figure, worked from $139,930, 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 17 of 452 in the state. The occupation ranks 17 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $146,630, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
The label is broader than the work. From $98,760 at the bottom tenth to $200,030 at the top, the same title covers roles that share little beyond a name.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $100,199 rather than its face figure.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $101,614 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 Rhode Island is $146,630. 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 drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($98,760) and the ninetieth ($200,030) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $100,199 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 $101,614 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.