Physician Assistant Salary in Ohio: Pay by Experience, City & Take-Home

A physician assistant in Ohio earns a median of $132,090 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). That works out to a median hourly wage of $63.51. Most PAs in the state land between $96,460 at the 10th percentile and $210,350 at the 90th, so where you sit depends heavily on experience, metro, and specialty. Ohio’s median trails the national PA median of $135,880 by a modest margin.

How Ohio compares to the national PA salary

Ohio’s median PA pay of $132,090 sits just below the national median of $135,880, a gap of $3,790 a year. That’s close enough that the difference fades once you factor in Ohio’s lower cost of living, especially housing. A PA in Columbus or Cleveland keeps more of that paycheck than a colleague earning the national median in a coastal city.

The state mean of $136,560 runs higher than the median, which tells you the top earners pull the average up. The spread is wide. The 10th percentile earns $96,460 while the 90th clears $210,350, a range of more than $113,000 between the bottom and top tenth of Ohio PAs. That gap is the story of this page: experience, metro, and specialty decide where you land inside it.

With roughly 4,900 PAs employed across the state, Ohio is a solid mid-tier market. There’s steady demand in its big metros and a clear pay ladder as you move from entry to senior.

The $3,790 gap below the national median is small enough that it should not steer your decision on its own. National figures are pulled upward by very high-cost states where a six-figure salary buys far less. A PA earning Ohio’s $132,090 in Columbus or Cleveland generally lives better than one earning the national $135,880 in a coastal metro, once rent, taxes, and everyday costs are accounted for. The headline number matters less than what it buys locally, which is exactly why the take-home and metro sections below carry more weight than this comparison.

Physician assistant pay in Ohio by experience

BLS percentiles are the cleanest proxy for an experience ladder. A new PA fresh out of a program tends to start near the 10th percentile and climbs through the median as they hit five to eight years, with the top quartile reserved for specialists, surgical PAs, and those in lead or supervisory roles.

The jump from entry to median is about $35,630, and most PAs make that climb within their first decade. The bigger leap is from experienced to senior: $60,350 separates the 75th and 90th percentiles. That top band isn’t reached by tenure alone. It usually means a high-demand specialty like surgery, emergency medicine, or dermatology, plus call coverage and procedural volume that command premium pay. Hourly figures at the entry and early stages are estimated from the annual numbers at a standard 2,080-hour year; only the median hourly of $63.51 is reported directly by BLS.

It helps to read these percentiles as bands rather than exact salaries. The move from the 10th percentile ($96,460) to the 25th ($109,780) is a $13,320 raise, and it tends to happen fast, usually inside the first two or three years as a new graduate gets off probationary pay and starts billing independently. The climb from the 25th to the median ($132,090) is steeper at $22,310, and it rewards the PAs who pick up a focus area, take on more complex patients, and stay put long enough to earn loyalty and merit increases at the same employer.

Above the median, the curve steepens sharply. Getting from the median to the 75th percentile ($150,000) is a $17,910 bump, reachable through specialty work and a few years of strong reviews. But the final stretch to the 90th percentile ($210,350) adds $60,350 on its own, more than the entire gap from entry to median. That tells you the very top of the Ohio PA market is a different game. It is built on rare specialties, surgical first-assist work, heavy call, leadership duties, or all of the above stacked together. Most PAs will never reach it, and that’s fine. The median already pays well in Ohio relative to the cost of living.

Physician assistant salary by Ohio metro

Where you practice inside Ohio matters more than people expect. The five largest metros show a clear spread, with Dayton and Columbus on top and Cincinnati at the bottom of this group. The numbers below are metro medians from BLS OEWS 2025.

Dayton leads at $138,400, about $9,880 ahead of Cincinnati’s $128,520. Columbus is the largest employer in the state with 1,140 PA jobs and a strong median of $137,550, so it offers both volume of openings and high pay, a rare combination. Cleveland sits in the middle at $135,860 and is home to major health systems that keep demand steady.

One thing to weigh: a metro median is only half the equation. Columbus pays $137,550 but carries higher housing costs than Dayton or Akron. Cincinnati’s lower median of $128,520 can stretch further in its more affordable neighborhoods. Compare the local median against local rent or a mortgage before you decide a city pays “more.”

The employment counts tell their own story. Columbus, with 1,140 PA jobs, has more than double the openings of Dayton (510) or Akron (400). For a job seeker, that depth matters. A larger market means more specialties hiring at once, more room to switch employers without leaving town, and more bargaining power at contract time. Cincinnati’s 920 jobs make it the second-deepest market, even though it posts the lowest median of the five. Cleveland’s 750 PA jobs feed a cluster of nationally known health systems, which keeps both demand and pay stable through hiring cycles.

Add up the five metros and you get 3,720 of the state’s roughly 4,900 PA jobs, so more than three quarters of Ohio PAs work in these urban areas. The remaining roughly 1,180 are spread across smaller cities and rural counties. Rural and small-town roles sometimes pay above the metro median to attract talent, especially in underserved areas, though they can also sit lower where a single hospital system dominates local hiring. If you’re open to relocating within Ohio, the $9,880 spread between Dayton’s $138,400 and Cincinnati’s $128,520 is real money over a career, and the cost-of-living difference can widen or shrink that gap further.

Take-home pay after taxes in Ohio

Gross salary is not what hits your bank account. Ohio levies a state income tax with a top marginal rate near 3.5% and a flat-ish structure that keeps the effective bite modest, so most of the difference between gross and net comes from federal tax and FICA. Here’s the breakdown at four points on the ladder, using single-filer estimates from the DATA for tax year 2026.

At the median, an Ohio PA takes home $97,880 a year, or about $8,157 a month, after an effective tax rate of 25.9%. State tax at the median is just $3,157, a small slice next to the $20,949 federal bill and $10,105 in FICA. The effective rate climbs gently as you move up, from 23.0% at entry to 28.4% at the senior level.

Watch how each piece scales. At entry ($96,460), the total tax bite is about $22,150, leaving $74,309 net, or $6,192 a month. At the experienced level ($150,000), you keep $109,494, which is $9,125 a month. At the senior $210,350, take-home reaches $150,662, or $12,555 a month. So while the senior PA earns roughly $113,890 more in gross than the entry PA, the net difference is about $76,353 after taxes claim their share. The federal share grows fastest because of bracket progression: it jumps from $12,835 at entry to $39,731 at the senior level, more than tripling, while FICA grows more slowly and Ohio state tax stays modest at every stage, topping out at $5,896 even for the senior earner.

The practical takeaway is that Ohio’s state tax never becomes the thing that defines your take-home. Even at $210,350 of gross income, the state keeps under $5,900. Your federal bracket and your FICA contributions do the heavy lifting. That is good news if you’re comparing Ohio against higher-tax states, and it’s why the cross-state comparison below leans so heavily on housing rather than tax.

Here’s the comparison that matters most and that no quick AI overview will run for you. Take the Ohio median net of $97,880 and put it next to the same gross salary earned in Texas, a state with no income tax. A PA earning Ohio’s median gross in Texas would net $101,037, which is $3,157 more than in Ohio. That $3,157 gap is exactly the Ohio state tax bill at this income. It sounds like a clean win for Texas, but it isn’t the whole picture.

Net pay minus local housing is the number that actually decides your standard of living. Ohio’s housing costs in metros like Dayton, Akron, and Cincinnati run well below those in fast-growing Texas cities like Austin and Dallas. The $3,157 Texas saves you on income tax can vanish in a single year of higher rent or property tax. Run your own numbers through the Ohio paycheck calculator, and if you want to model deductions and credits precisely at filing time, TurboTax walks through the state and federal pieces line by line.

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How to earn more as a PA in Ohio

The gap between the median ($132,090) and the 90th percentile ($210,350) is $78,260. That’s the headroom available to PAs who position themselves well. Here’s how Ohio PAs close that gap.

• Move into a high-paying specialty. Surgical, emergency, and dermatology PAs cluster in the top quartile. The shift from primary care to a procedure-heavy specialty is the single biggest lever on pay, and it can move you from the $132,090 median toward the $150,000 experienced mark or beyond.
• Target the highest-paying metro. A move from Cincinnati ($128,520) to Dayton ($138,400) is a $9,880 raise for the same role, before you account for the lower cost of living in the Dayton area.
• Add call and procedural coverage. Taking call, covering nights, and building procedural volume push you up the percentile ladder faster than years of tenure alone.
• Earn a CAQ (Certificate of Added Qualifications). Specialty certifications in areas like emergency medicine or cardiovascular and thoracic surgery signal added value at contract-renewal time. Short, focused courses on platforms like Coursera can help you build the clinical and leadership credentials that justify a higher band.
• Negotiate the full package. Productivity bonuses, RVU incentives, and CME stipends often add thousands on top of base. The senior band near $210,350 usually includes incentive pay, not just a higher base.
• Step into a lead or supervisory PA role. Lead PAs who manage scheduling, onboarding, and quality metrics for a department sit higher in the pay distribution and gain a path toward administrative pay.

Job outlook for PAs in Ohio

Ohio employs about 4,900 physician assistants, concentrated in its five big metros. Columbus alone accounts for 1,140 of those jobs, with Cincinnati (920) and Cleveland (750) close behind. Physician assistant remains one of the fastest-growing health roles nationally, driven by an aging population and the push to extend physician capacity, and Ohio’s large hospital systems and academic medical centers keep hiring steady. If you’re testing the market, listings on ZipRecruiter give a quick read on which Ohio metros and specialties are posting the most openings right now.

Related and higher-paying roles in Ohio

If you’re weighing PA against nearby clinical careers in Ohio, the pay math is clear. A physician assistant’s median of $132,090 sits above both common comparison roles. A nurse practitioner in Ohio earns a median of $124,870, which is $7,220 less than a PA. A registered nurse earns $82,510, a full $49,580 less than the PA median. PA pay leads both, which is part of why the role draws so many career-changers from nursing.

Ohio physician assistant salary FAQ

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 (occupation 29-1071); tax estimates for tax year 2026 (single filer). Last updated 2026. See our methodology.