If you have googled the salary of a PA in a specific specialty in the past, you get an average salary, but
how accurate is it? Today I will be discussing the average emergency department (ED) PA salary.
Depending on the location of where you practice and your experience, the salary differs across the board.
The average starting salary of a PA in NYC for the ED is $95,000. As an ED PA, that was the salary that
a lot of my colleagues and I started with. With time and experience, that number grew. This number also
depends on the number of hours that you work. In the ED, a full time PA works anywhere between 30 to
40 hours a week and starts out on an average of $50 per hour. During the first year, you are guaranteed in
most places to get raises which can either be fixed values or in some places, it depends on the quality of
your work. Once you have been working for about 3-5 years, you can expect to make anywhere on
average $120,000-$130,000. Some EDs do offer bonuses which depend on your RVU and in a few places,
you may get overtime and holiday pay as well. Every year most hospitals give a raise, which in some
cases is a fixed percentage increase, and at other locations it just depends on your progress throughout the
year. The raise can depend on certain factors which include your RVU, patients per hour, and door to
patient time. An ED PA rotates through day and night shifts. The night shifts do have a differential of
once again either a fixed value or a percentage of your hourly pay.

There are also a few hospitals that currently offer a ED residency program for PAs. The residency
program is a 1 to 2 year program that trains PA in this specialty. If you choose to undergo a residency, the
salary for that tends to be lower than the average starting salary, but of course you can request a higher
pay after you complete the residency. A lot of EDs do require PAs to have 1 to 2 years of experience in
order to be hired, but there are a few that do accept new grads.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is just the average salary. Depending on where you practice as a PA,
you may get paid either slightly lower or higher than the numbers that I mentioned. Additionally, of
course as your experience grows, so will your salary. Make sure you research the salary of the specialty
that you are applying for in your location before you agree to your offer.

AYESHA GHAFFAR PA-C

Ayesha has been an APPAA contributor since 2020. Since graduating in 2017, Ayesha has been working in Emergency Medicine as well as Urgent Care.