Medical assistants earn a living working with doctors and their patients.
Hospitals, clinics and other facilities employ medical assistants who work in the front office and may be responsible for both clinical and clerical tasks, such as taking patients' temperatures and scheduling appointments. The salary of a medical front office assistant varies based on factors such as the type of employer for which she works and the geographic location of the office.
Salary
Medical front office assistants in the United States earn an average salary of $29,450 and a median salary of $28,650 as of May 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average hourly rate is $14.16. Assistants in the bottom 10 percent earn an average of $20,750, while those in the top 10 percent earn $39,970.
Medical Facilities
Most medical assistants work in the front offices of medical facilities such as clinics and hospitals. In physicians' offices, the average salary is $29,810 according to the BLS, while in general hospitals the average is $30,830. In the offices of other health practitioners, assistants earn an average income of $26,830, and in outpatient care centers the average is $29,830. Specialty hospitals and dentists' offices offer some of the highest wages for medical front office assistants at salary averages of $33,750 and $35,920 respectively, and psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals offer the highest wages at a salary average of $46,430.
Other Employers
Medical assistants also may work in the front offices of non-medical facilities performing the same duties. Those employed at colleges, universities and professional schools earn an average salary of $30,850 per year according to the BLS, while medical assistants working in the industry of scientific research and development services earn an average of $33,810 annually. The local government is also an employer of medical front office assistants, offering an average annual wage of $31,900.
Location
Due to differences in cost of living, salaries for medical front office assistants vary from one region to the next. Medical assistants in Washington, D.C., earn the nation's highest paying average annual salary of $37,790, according to the BLS. Top-paying states are Alaska at $36,400 and Massachusetts at $34,490. The top two highest paying cities for medical front office assistants are located in California: Vallejo-Fairfield offers an average salary of $43,010, and in Salinas the average is $40,970.
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