Throughout our 23-year history, The Clinical Advisor has strived to highlight the successes and accomplishments of nurse practitioners (NPs) and PAs. The COVID-19 pandemic allowed clinicians to practice at the top of their education and clinical training and our survey results reflect the impact the pandemic had on income and job satisfaction. For clinicians considering a career in a new location, specialty, or practice area but are unsure how the change may impact compensation, especially during the pandemic, the results of the 2021 NP/PA Salary Survey may help navigate these areas of uncertainty.
Similar to results from previous years, most of the NPs and PAs who responded to the 2021 survey reported earning a higher salary this year compared with last year (47% and 44%, respectively). However, similar numbers of respondents in both fields reported earning the same salary as last year (33% of NPs and 32% of PAs). When asked how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their income, 21% of NPs and 27% of PAs reported earning less income last year because of the pandemic, while 19% of NPs and 15% of PAs reported earning more income.
The average earned salary was similar between NPs and PAs. This year, the reported average salary for NPs was $112,979 and average salary for PAs was $116,373. Most NPs who indicated a practice area worked in internal medicine/family medicine/primary care medicine (13.7%) and earned an average of $108,488. Urgent care and internal medicine/family medicine/primary care medicine were the 2 most common areas of practice for PAs (8.1% and 7.6%, respectively) and were linked to average salaries of $116,500 and $102,727, respectively. The gender wage gap still persists among PAs. Male PAs (118) reported earning an average of $127,139 compared with $113,236 for women (224), $102,500 for nonbinary (2), and $72,000 for transgender (19) PAs. Salaries among transgender NPs also fell well below their male and female counterparts ($92,500 vs $113,818 and $112,883, respectively).
Most NP and PA respondents reported working in the South (35.3% and 29.5%, respectively), and providers in this area reported making average salaries of $106,643 and $111,235, respectively. Similar to the findings from the 2020 survey, both NPs and PAs in the West reported making the highest average salaries ($128,781 and $130,255, respectively). Most NPs worked in urban areas (36.7%) followed by suburban areas (32.5%). For PAs, the percentage of clinicians working in suburban and urban work locations was virtually tied (37.6% and 37.3%, respectively). Similar percentages of NP and PA respondents reported feeling “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their compensation (51% of NPs and 54% of PAs). However, respondents who reported feeling “very satisfied” earned the highest average salaries ($122,455 for NPs and $141,852 for PAs).
