Highest Paying Cities for Medical Assistants in VA

It would be good to assess which cities in Virginia pay the best financially for your MA career. We have tabled below the 8 highest paying Virginia cities for medical assistants:

Source: BLS (as of March 31, 2020)

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV not only pays the best medical assistant salary in Virginia but also has the most number of vacancies for them. This area employs a major chunk of all MAs employed in the state, i.e., 11,790 medical assistants on the whole (much higher than the other Virginia metropolitan areas).

Benefits for Virginia Medical Assistants other than Salaries

There are vital perks provided to MAs over and above their base salaries. The benefits rendered are dependent on the state the MA is working in as well as the employer they’re associated with. Let us take a look to understand what kind of add-on benefits can the medical assistants of Virginia expect.

• Healthcare Perks

  Healthcare perks are amongst the major add-on advantages rendered to medical assistants apart from the basic medical assistant pay in Virginia. They can include dental insurances, vision and healthcare insurances, and the like. These perks account for around $6,371, i.e., 11.9% of the total compensation amount.

• Time Off

  To help MAs rejuvenate, paid vacations (complimentary offs) are included in the package. These add-on perks account for $4,582, i.e., 8.5% of the total compensation figure over and above the clinical medical assistant salary in Virginia.

• Social Security

  These benefits (provided on social grounds) are provided to qualifying MAs in Virginia over and above the pay they receive monthly. They amount to roughly $2,762, i.e., 5.1% of the total compensation package.

• 401K/403B

  401K benefits are provided if you’re an MA employed at a for-profit healthcare facility, whereas 403B perks are offered if employed at a not-for-profit organization. These add-on benefits amount to $1,769, i.e., 3.3% of the total compensation on an average for medical assistants in Virginia.

• Pension

  MAs in the state are also entitled to pensions. These amount to $1,516 (2.8% of total compensation).

• Disability

  For qualifying MAs, these perks in Virginia amount to $578, i.e., 1.1% of total compensation on an average.

Note: The base MA salary in Virginia on average is $36,062. It excludes all the above perks and constitutes 67.2% of the total compensation amount. Apart from this, MAs also get bonuses worth $42 (0.1% of total compensation).

All in all, the total compensation figure equals $53,682 (base salary+bonus+add-on benefits) for MAs in Virginia.

Source: salary.com (as of November 25, 2020)

Projected Employment and Hiring Trends for VA Medical Assistants (2018-2028)

Source: Projections Central (2018-2028 report)

As you can see above, a dramatic 24.4% growth in the number of jobs (2018-2028) is hugely significant and signals much scope for the MA industry in the state.

Hiring Trends

• Medical assistant jobs in Virginia rank #12 on the list of Zippia.com’s fastest-growing careers in the state. MA vacancies are projected to grow by a whopping 132% and have 14,160 open positions by 2024.
• On Careeronestop’s list of the fastest-growing careers in VA, medical assisting ranks at #10. In 2016, there were 12,600 MA jobs in the state, projected to grow to 16,960 by 2026 (a significant 35% more).
• In USA Wage’s 2019 survey on the top 200 popular jobs in Virginia, medical assisting ranked in the top 100, on #61. The total number of professionals employed in the industry is 14,860, which constitute 0.38% of the total employment in VA.
• On Virginia Government’s job outlook 2024, medical assisting made it to the list as a prominent high-growth occupation. A total of 3,434 more jobs are projected to open in the MA space in Virginia by 2024.