Anesthesiologist Assistant salary: BLS counts the job inside “Physician Assistants”.
What BLS publishes for anesthesiologist assistants, labelled for the occupation it actually describes, and what O*NET publishes about the specialty itself.
BLS does not publish pay for anesthesiologist assistants separately. Every pay figure on this page is for the BLS occupation “Physician Assistants” (SOC 29-1071), which includes anesthesiologist assistants and other jobs; it is not a figure for anesthesiologist assistants alone.
BLS does not publish a wage for anesthesiologist assistants on their own. O*NET classifies the job (Anesthesiologist Assistants, O*NET-SOC 29-1071.01) inside the BLS occupation “Physician Assistants” (SOC 29-1071). The median annual wage for that whole occupation was $135,880 in May 2025 (BLS: Physician Assistants). That figure covers every job BLS counts as physician assistants, so it is not a salary figure for anesthesiologist assistants.
Figures for the whole occupation
Data BLS OEWS, May 2025. Each figure describes the whole BLS occupation named in its row, not anesthesiologist assistants.
| BLS occupation | SOC | Median annual wage (whole occupation) | Employed (whole occupation) | Full pay data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician Assistants | 29-1071 | $135,880 | 162,150 | Physician Assistants pay by percentile and state |
Why the occupation's median is not anesthesiologist assistant pay
Data How BLS counts specialties.
- BLS's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey asks employers to report jobs by SOC occupation. anesthesiologist assistants are reported inside “Physician Assistants”, and BLS does not break the specialty out.
- A median for the whole occupation mixes every job in it. Anesthesiologist Assistants can sit anywhere in that range; the data does not say whether they earn more or less than the occupation as a whole.
- Experience, setting, shift work, overtime and location all move pay inside an occupation, and none of them is separated for this specialty in the BLS data.
What anesthesiologist assistants do
Data O*NET 31.0 describes anesthesiologist assistants (Anesthesiologist Assistants, O*NET-SOC 29-1071.01) separately from the broader BLS occupation, so the job itself is documented even though its pay is not. O*NET places it in Job Zone 5 of 5 (extensive preparation). In O*NET's survey of occupation experts in this occupation, the most common answer for the education the job requires was a master's degree (96%).
Core tasks rated most important by occupation experts (O*NET).
- Provide airway management interventions including tracheal intubation, fiber optics, or ventilary support.
- Control anesthesia levels during procedures.
- Administer anesthetic, adjuvant, or accessory drugs under the direction of an anesthesiologist.
- Pretest and calibrate anesthesia delivery systems and monitors.
- Respond to emergency situations by providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), basic cardiac life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), or pediatric advanced life support (PALS).
- Collect and document patients' pre-anesthetic health histories.
How to find pay for anesthesiologist assistants specifically
Advice
- Read the pay range in anesthesiologist assistant job postings for the places you would work, where employers publish one.
- Ask the recruiter or hiring manager for the range for this exact title and shift before the final interview.
- Use the physician assistants figures as context for the wider occupation, not as a quote for this specialty: the full Physician Assistants pay data shows the percentiles and states BLS publishes.
- Compare like with like: the same setting, the same shift pattern and the same years of experience.
More for Anesthesiologist Assistants
How this page is built
How this page is built
The occupations are the BLS occupations O*NET 31.0 maps the specialty to (O*NET-SOC 29-1071.01). Each median, employment count and title is copied from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national file for that occupation and labelled with its name. Nothing is adjusted, estimated or split out for the specialty.
- Pay for anesthesiologist assistants alone: BLS does not publish it.
- Pay at a specific employer, or for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
- Your own offer: experience, setting and location change it.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.