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

A physician assistant in Arizona earns a median of $134,650 a year, or about $64.73 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). Most PAs in the state land between $106,030 at the 10th percentile and $174,420 at the 90th. That median sits just below the national PA median of $135,880, a gap of $1,230, and Arizona’s flat 2.5% income tax keeps more of it in your pocket than most high-cost states.

How Arizona PA pay compares to the national number

Arizona pays physician assistants a median of $134,650. The national median is $135,880. So a typical PA in Arizona earns $1,230 less than the typical PA nationwide, a gap of less than 1%. For practical purposes, Arizona pays right at the national rate.

That’s a strong result once you account for taxes and living costs. Many of the states that beat Arizona on gross pay do it by paying out in places where state income tax runs 6% to 13% and a starter home costs two or three times what it does in Phoenix. The Arizona number is close to par on paper and tends to stretch further after the deductions land.

The state’s mean (average) PA salary is higher than the median at $140,850. The average runs above the median because a smaller group of senior PAs at the top pulls the average up, while the median tells you what the person in the middle of the pack actually earns. When you’re sizing up an offer, the median is the more honest anchor. Arizona currently employs about 3,750 physician assistants, a mid-sized PA workforce concentrated heavily in the Phoenix metro.

Here is the full statewide spread from the BLS percentile data, which is the cleanest way to see where any single offer falls:

The spread from the 10th to the 90th percentile is $68,390. That’s the real range of what an Arizona PA can earn, and where you fall inside it comes down to specialty, years on the job, and the metro you practice in. The next three sections break each of those down.

Physician assistant pay in Arizona by experience

Experience is the single biggest lever on PA pay in Arizona. A new graduate steps in near the bottom of the range, and a seasoned PA in a procedural specialty can sit near the top. The BLS percentile bands are the most reliable proxy for that career arc, because pay climbs as you move up the percentiles.

A few things stand out. The jump from entry ($106,030) to the median ($134,650) is $28,620, and most PAs cover that ground in the first five to eight years as they finish onboarding, pick up a specialty, and build a track record. That early climb is the steepest of your career on a percentage basis, so the first job you take matters: a slightly lower starting salary at an employer that promotes and trains fast can beat a higher starting number at a place where pay stalls.

From the median to experienced (75th percentile) is another $21,850. That step usually comes from moving into a higher-paying specialty, taking call, or shifting from primary care into surgery, emergency medicine, or dermatology. The final leap from experienced to senior (90th percentile) adds $17,920 and typically reflects lead-PA roles, supervisory duties, or ownership of a defined service line.

The hourly figures track the same path. The state median is $64.73 an hour. Entry-level work runs closer to $50.98, and senior PAs clear $83.86. If you’re weighing a per-diem or locum offer, those hourly numbers are the benchmark to hold any quote against. Anything well below $50.98 for a credentialed PA in Arizona is a below-market rate worth negotiating.

One caution on the entry number. Even the 10th percentile here, $106,030, is six figures. Physician assistant is one of the few master’s-level clinical roles where a brand-new graduate in Arizona starts above $100,000. That floor is part of why the role keeps drawing career-changers, and it’s the reason the day-one offer is rarely the part of your career where pay is the worry. The growth above it is.

Physician assistant pay in Arizona by metro

Where you practice inside Arizona changes both your pay and how far it goes. The Phoenix metro dominates the state’s PA employment, but the smaller northern and central metros actually post slightly higher medians. Here are the five Arizona metros with reported PA data:

The headline is that the highest-paying metros are not the biggest ones. Prescott Valley-Prescott leads at $135,630, with Flagstaff a hair behind at $135,600. Both edge out Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler’s $134,650. The difference between the top metro and Phoenix is only $980, so this isn’t a reason to uproot, but it does counter the usual assumption that the largest city always pays most. In Arizona’s case, the smaller mountain and high-country markets pay a small premium, likely to attract PAs to areas with thinner clinician supply.

Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler is where the jobs are. It employs roughly 3,050 of the state’s 3,750 PAs, more than 80% of the total. If you want choice of employer, specialty, and shift, the Valley is the practical center of gravity. The major hospital systems, large multispecialty groups, and the bulk of urgent care and surgical practices all sit there, which means the deepest pool of openings and the most bargaining power when you negotiate between competing offers.

Tucson, the state’s second city, posts a median of $129,880, about $4,770 below Phoenix. It employs around 290 PAs. The university medical presence keeps academic and teaching-adjacent roles available, but the median runs a notch lower than the Phoenix figure. Lake Havasu City-Kingman sits at the bottom of this group at $129,460 with about 50 PAs, a small rural market where openings are limited but competition for them is too.

The takeaway for metro choice: Phoenix gives you the most options and a median right in line with the rest of the state, while Prescott, Flagstaff, and the smaller northern markets pay a slight premium that can be worth chasing if rural or high-country practice already appeals to you. Cost of living should weigh in here too. A $980 pay edge in Prescott means little if housing or commute costs eat it, while the same nominal salary in a lower-cost corner of the state can leave you better off in real terms.

Arizona PA take-home pay after tax

Gross salary is the headline. Take-home is the number you live on. Arizona uses a flat 2.5% state income tax, one of the lowest in the country, which keeps the state-tax bite small at every income level. Here’s what the four key percentile points look like after federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and Arizona state tax, based on a single filer for the 2026 tax year:

The median PA keeps $99,420 of a $134,650 salary, an effective combined rate of 26.2%. That works out to $8,285 a month. Notice how light the state line is: $3,366 in Arizona tax on a median salary, thanks to the flat 2.5% rate. In a state with a progressive 8% or 9% top bracket, that same earner would lose several thousand more. The effective rate climbs gently with income, from 24.2% at entry to 28.0% at the senior level, almost all of which is federal, not state.

The cross-state comparison that matters. Arizona does tax income, so the fair contrast is a no-income-tax state. Take Texas. An Arizona PA on the state median nets $99,420 after tax. The same $134,650 salary in Texas nets $102,786, because Texas levies no state income tax at all. That’s a gap of $3,366 a year, the exact amount of Arizona’s state tax on a median salary. So a Texas PA on identical gross pay takes home $3,366 more. Before you read that as a reason to move, hold it against housing: Phoenix housing runs well below the price of the big Texas metros, and that $3,366 can vanish fast against a larger mortgage or rent.

That’s the real lesson. Net pay minus local housing is the number that actually matters, not the gross on the offer letter and not even the after-tax figure on its own. A salary that nets $3,366 more but costs $10,000 more a year to put a roof over leaves you behind. Run your own number against your own rent before you let a state-tax gap drive a decision. To see your exact paycheck, use the Arizona paycheck calculator, and if you want to model deductions, retirement contributions, and a second income properly, tax software like TurboTax will get you closer to your true effective rate than any rule of thumb.

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How to earn more as a PA in Arizona

The PA pay range in Arizona is wide, $68,390 from the 10th to the 90th percentile, which means there’s real room to move up without leaving the state. The levers that work:

• Move into a higher-paying specialty. Surgical subspecialties, dermatology, emergency medicine, and cardiology consistently pay above primary care. Shifting specialty is the fastest way to jump from the median ($134,650) toward the 75th percentile ($156,500) and beyond.
• Take call and procedural shifts. Call pay, holiday and night differentials, and procedure-heavy roles add to base. A PA who covers call in surgery or the ER can clear the senior band ($174,420) faster than one working strictly daytime clinic hours.
• Add per-diem or locum work. With the median hourly at $64.73 and experienced rates above $75 an hour, picking up locum shifts on the side is a direct way to lift annual income, especially in the rural northern metros that pay a small premium to attract coverage.
• Build toward a lead or supervisory PA role. The 90th percentile largely reflects lead-PA and service-line roles. Volunteering for charting standards, onboarding, or quality work positions you for those titles.
• Sharpen credentials and adjacent skills. Certificates of Added Qualification (CAQs) in specialties, and short courses in areas like medical coding, practice management, or clinical informatics can justify a raise or open a higher-paying role. Self-paced courses on Coursera are a low-cost way to build those credentials around a clinical schedule.
• Concentrate your job search in Phoenix. With more than 3,050 PA jobs in the Valley, that’s where competing offers exist, and competing offers are what give you negotiating power on base pay.

Job outlook for PAs in Arizona

Arizona employs about 3,750 physician assistants, with the overwhelming majority, roughly 3,050, working in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro. Physician assistant is one of the faster-growing clinical occupations nationally, driven by an aging population and a push to extend physician capacity, and Arizona’s rapid population growth, especially in the Phoenix and Tucson corridors, points to steady demand for PA coverage across primary care, urgent care, and hospital settings.

The pay structure backs this up. A median of $134,650 with an entry-level floor above $100,000 signals an employer market competing for clinicians, not one with surplus supply. The smaller northern metros paying a premium to attract PAs tell the same story. When you’re ready to see live openings and benchmark current offers against the BLS medians on this page, a board like ZipRecruiter is a quick way to scan the Arizona market by metro and specialty.

Related and higher-paying roles in Arizona

If you’re comparing the PA path against neighboring clinical roles in Arizona, the numbers are close at the top and wide at the entry. A nurse practitioner in Arizona earns a median of $134,420, which is $230 below the PA median of $134,650. For practical purposes, PA and NP pay is the same in this state. The bigger gap is to registered nurses: an Arizona RN earns a median of $99,500, which is $35,150 below the PA median. That gap is the clearest illustration of what the PA credential adds over an RN role in this market.

Arizona PA salary FAQ

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 (occupational wages and employment); ThePayGuide tax modeling for the 2026 tax year (single filer, federal, FICA, and Arizona flat 2.5% state income tax). Last updated 2026. See our methodology.