As of April 01, 2025, the average hourly pay of Surgical Assistant in the United States is $58. While Salary.com is seeing that Surgical Assistant salary in the US can go up to $65 or down to $48, but most earn between $53 and $62. Salary.com shows the average base salary (core compensation), as well as the average total cash compensation for the job of Surgical Assistant in the United States.
| Annual Salary |
Monthly Pay |
Weekly Pay |
Hourly Wage |
|
| 75th Percentile | $62 | $5 | $1 | $0 |
| Average | $58 | $5 | $1 | $0 |
| 25th Percentile | $53 | $4 | $1 | $0 |
As of April 01, 2025, Salary.com is seeing that an entry-level Surgical Assistant with under 1 year experience makes about $116,574. With less than 2 years of experience, a mid-level Surgical Assistant makes around $117,332. After 2-4 years, the Surgical Assistant pay rises to about $120,540. Those senior Surgical Assistant with 5-8 years of experience earn roughly $123,059, and those Surgical Assistant having 8 years or more experience is expected to earn about $123,689 on average.
| Levels | Salary |
|---|---|
| Entry Level Surgical Assistant | $116,574 |
| Intermediate Level Surgical Assistant | $117,332 |
| Senior Level Surgical Assistant | $120,540 |
| Specialist Level Surgical Assistant | $123,059 |
| Expert Level Surgical Assistant | $123,689 |
| Entry Level | 3% |
| Mid Level | 2% |
| Senior Level | 1% |
| Top Level | 3% |
| Experienced | 3% |
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from state to state due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Surgical Assistant is $132,260 in California and in Massachusetts, the average annual salary goes to $130,500. While in New Jersey, a Surgical Assistant earns $129,970 per year.
What Am I Worth?
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from city to city due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of Surgical Assistant in San Francisco, CA is $149,750 and in New York, NY, the average annual salary goes to $138,960. While a Surgical Assistant earns $133,730 per year in Boston, MA.
For those exploring the changing dynamics of Surgical Assistant salaries, Salary.com offers detailed insights through our Job Trending in CA Labor Market analysis. As of April 01, 2025, our research highlights a notable shift in Surgical Assistant compensation over the past six years. For instance, the median salary has moved from $231,993 in 2023 to about $237,504 in 2024 (for a comprehensive analysis of Surgical Assistant salary trends, click here). It's crucial to consider several elements, including geographical location, experience level, industry demand, and economic development, as they play a significant role in influencing salary variations.
Salary.com job board provides millions of Surgical Assistant information for you to search for. Click on search button below to see Surgical Assistant job openings or enter a new job title here.
Here are companies hiring for Surgical Assistant and their salaries, click below for more details.
| Core Compensation | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Base Salary | $119,910 | 73.3% | ||
| Bonus | $0 | 0.0% | ||
| Value of Benefits | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Social Security | $9,173 | 5.6% | ||
| 401K/403B | $5,876 | 3.6% | ||
| Disability | $1,919 | 1.2% | ||
| Healthcare | $6,371 | 3.9% | ||
| Pension | $5,036 | 3.1% | ||
| Time Off | $15,219 | 9.3% | ||
| Total Compensation | $163,504 | 100% | ||
| Degree Level | % of user with this level of education |
|---|---|
| High School | 7.1% |
| Associates | 3.6% |
| Bachelors | 19.1% |
| Masters | 66.4% |
| Doctorate | 3.8% |
What Am I Worth?
The Surgical Assistant completes pre-op tasks including physical examinations and recording health history. Under the direction of physician, performs first assistant surgical duties, including tissue retraction and suturing. Being a Surgical Assistant participates in daily patient rounds, writes progress notes, conducts patient education, writes prescriptions, and prepares discharge summaries. Orders appropriate laboratory and radiographic tests. In addition, Surgical Assistant requires completion of the PANCE exam administered by National Commission of the Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). Requires a master's degree of Health Sciences for Physician Assistants or related. Typically reports to a physician. Requires Certified Physician Assistant (PA-C). Requires State license to practice. Surgical Assistant's years of experience requirement may be unspecified. Certification and/or licensing in the position's specialty is the main requirement.
Specify the abilities and skills that a person needs in order to carry out the specified job duties. Each competency has five to ten behavioral assertions that can be observed, each with a corresponding performance level (from one to five) that is required for a particular job.
Collaboration: Works cooperatively and shares ideas with coworkers and managers to achieve common goals and objectives.
Acute Care: Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery. In medical terms, care for acute health conditions is the opposite from chronic care, or longer term care. Acute care services are generally delivered by teams of health care professionals from a range of medical and surgical specialties. Acute care may require a stay in a hospital emergency department, ambulatory surgery center, urgent care centre or other short-term stay facility, along with the assistance of diagnostic services, surgery, or follow-up outpatient care in the community. Hospital-based acute inpatient care typically has the goal of discharging patients as soon as they are deemed healthy and stable. Acute care settings include emergency department, intensive care, coronary care, cardiology, neonatal intensive care, and many general areas where the patient could become acutely unwell and require stabilization and transfer to another higher dependency unit for further treatment.
Medical Services: A service that provides medical treatment to people within an area or country: In poorer countries without a reliable health service, 90% of care for people with Aids-related illnesses is carried out in the home. health services.
