Find the hourly rate you should actually be asking for.
If you work per diem, part time, "extra help," locums, or 1099, you know the question, and how hard it is to answer: is my hourly rate actually fair? Roughly one in six PAs is not a salaried employee, and nearly every salary tool out there quietly ignores us. I am one of you. I work part time with no benefits in California, and I built this calculator because I needed it myself.
Hi, I'm Stephen. Family practice PA, part time, no benefits. This is the tool I wish I'd had.
- Enter your ratePlus your hours and the market you compare against. That alone gives you an answer.
- Tell it what's coveredHealth insurance, retirement, CME, malpractice, licenses. Untick what your employer pays.
- Get your fair askThe rate a benefited PA's whole package is really worth per hour, ready to take into your next negotiation.
Why the usual PA hourly rate comparison is wrong
Here is the trap. The usual advice is to compare your rate against the published BLS hourly wage for physician assistants. But that number is just the annual median divided by 2,080 hours — it counts a salaried PA’s paid vacation as hours worked and values their health insurance, retirement match, CME allowance, and licensure costs at exactly zero. Compare an unbenefitted rate against it and you can look 25% better off than you really are.
What a fair per diem, part-time, or 1099 PA rate includes
This calculator makes the honest comparison instead: what a benefited PA’s whole package is worth per hour they actually work in your market — built on the same live BLS dataset behind our PA salary report and cost-of-living analysis — versus everything you have to buy out of your own pocket to end up in the same place: marketplace health coverage (age-rated, with the 400% federal-poverty-level subsidy cliff back for 2026), your own retirement contribution, CME, DEA registration, state licensure, and malpractice. And because those replacement costs are fixed, working fewer hours pushes your break-even rate higher — the opposite of what most people assume.
Be honest with the toggles, and if the verdict surprises you, take it into your next contract conversation — and run your offer through the PA Contract Check while you are at it. Knowledge is negotiating power.
Got your number? Here's what to do with it.
A fair rate only helps if you can back it up. These three free tools pick up right where this one leaves off.
Questions PAs ask about hourly rates
How do I know if my per diem or part-time PA rate is fair?
Compare it to what a benefited PA's whole package is worth for every hour they actually work in your market, then add what you have to buy yourself: health insurance, retirement, CME, malpractice, DEA and licensing. That total, spread the way employers fund benefits, is your fair rate to ask for. The calculator above does all of that math for you.
Why can't I just compare my rate to the BLS hourly wage for PAs?
The published hourly figure is the annual median divided by 2,080 hours. It counts a salaried PA's paid vacation as hours worked and values their health insurance, retirement match, CME allowance and licensing at zero. Next to that number an unbenefitted rate can look about 25% better than it really is.
Why does the calculator show two different numbers?
The fair-share ask is the rate to bring to an employer. It spreads benefit costs over a full-time schedule, the way employers actually fund them, so it holds steady whether you work 8 hours a week or 40. Your personal break-even is a life-planning number: because your insurance and licensing costs stay fixed, it climbs as your hours drop. Negotiate with the first, plan your life with the second.
Does it work for 1099 and locums PAs?
Yes. Choose the 1099 option under "How you're paid" and the calculator adds the employer half of Social Security and Medicare that you pay yourself as a contractor.
Does it assume I qualify for an ACA subsidy?
No. Health insurance is priced at the full marketplace premium unless you tick the subsidy box and enter your household income. Eligibility depends on everyone's income in your household, not just this job, so a working spouse often rules it out.