Introducing the AAPA Salary Explorer: Personalized Data in Seconds

PAs Have Faster Compensation Access Than Ever Before

November 26, 2019

By AAPA Research Department

New PAs, seasoned PAs recently re-entering the workforce, and midcareer PAs who have recently made a job change, are no doubt familiar with the 2019 AAPA Salary Report. This annual AAPA report breaks down compensation by salary, hourly wage, and benefits across specialties, work settings, and employer type. The Salary Report displays these data both nationally and by state and provides a level of detail that no other compensation resource for PAs can. To make these data even more accessible and even more relevant to your professional situation, we created the 2019 AAPA Salary Explorer.

Think custom salary details in minutes – not hours!
The AAPA Salary Report you know and love is a wonderful tool for anyone negotiating their compensation and benefits and to anyone who wants to dive into the data, but it’s by no means a quick read. At 237 pages, it is a data rich tool, but can be overwhelming for a PA or PA student looking for a quick overview of fair compensation trends.

Enter the 2019 AAPA Salary Explorer. We are piloting this valuable new product to PAs and PA students., The best part is that it is free to anyone who has access to the full 2019 AAPA Salary Report.  And here’s the best part – in previous years data was not available to PAs for up to eight months after PAs provided us with their compensation. Going forward, the lag-time between when you provide AAPA with your compensation data and when you are able to use the data will be cut in half!

We are proud of this pilot and we think you will love it too. To start exploring, you enter whether you are paid by base salary or hourly wage, and then give us a few more details such as your state, major specialty area, setting, and years of experience. Before you know it, you can see actual compensation results, or the buying power of PAs (cost-of-living adjusted compensation) in that scenario. We also provide a U.S. map where you can hover over salary data by state!

What’s happening to the 2020 Report?
In its inaugural year, the AAPA Salary Explorer is a valuable feature that PAs have been requesting, but we are still perfecting it. Some details in the Explorer aren’t quite as detailed as the Report; we are adding new features in 2020. For example,  the 2019 AAPA Salary Explorer allows you to break out data for your major specialty area (primary care, internal medicine subspecialties, emergency medicine, surgical subspecialties, pediatric subspecialties, or other) but in 2020, you can choose any of over four dozen specialties in the Salary Report. In addition, the 2020 AAPA Salary Explorer will provide access to every piece of data the Salary Report does, such as benefits, paid time off, and much more.

What’s next for salary and benefits data at AAPA?
As we pilot this new tool, we want your feedback. Explore the 2019 AAPA Salary Explorer. Beginning in 2020, AAPA will provide the AAPA Salary Report: National Summary to members (and to nonmembers who complete the AAPA Salary Survey). The National Summary is a 20-30 page national-level overview of the demographics of the profession, compensation nationwide, and a deep dive into a current topic. The data tables themselves are going away, and in their place will be a new tool that provides you with all the Salary Report data, but tailored to you, in seconds! We are excited, and we hope you are too. Salary Explorer 2020 will be released in late spring 2020.

Tim McCall, PhD, is associate director, surveys & analysis, at AAPA. Contact Tim at [email protected].

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2019 AAPA Salary Report