Medical assistant jobs in Kentucky

Medical assistants hold about 13,440 jobs in Kentucky. That works out to 6.7 for every 1,000 jobs across the state, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That puts Kentucky 20th among the 50 states and Washington, DC, for the number of medical assistant jobs.

State labor officials expect about 1,950 openings each year. New roles make up part of that number, and so do jobs people leave behind when they retire or move to something else. Kentucky also ranks 20 of 51 here.

According to the state projection, job totals could reach 15,920 by 2034, up from 14,360 in 2024. That is a 10.8% increase, while the national rate comes to 12.5%. Kentucky is adding these jobs more slowly than most states, ranking 44 of 51 for growth.

Half of workers earn more than $39,270 a year and half earn less, and that middle figure works out to $18.88 an hour. The US median sits at $45,690, placing Kentucky 44 of 51 for wages, according to federal wage data.

Half of Kentucky medical assistants earn somewhere between $36,560 and $45,940. At the bottom end, a tenth earn $32,950 or less. At the top end, a tenth earn $47,940 or more.

Your location can shape your paycheck quite a bit. A few of these metro areas stretch past state lines, so a position on the other side of the river in Ohio or Indiana belongs to the same area.

Cincinnati has the most medical assistant jobs of these areas, then Louisville, and both pay a median well above the Kentucky median of $39,270.

The state has no law specific to medical assistants and does not offer its own certification. Your employer sets the training requirements and decides if a national certificate matters for the role. A national certificate comes from a testing organization and shows that you passed an exam.

Some tasks still fall outside what you may do. To practice medicine in the state, you need a license, and the law names no exception for medical assistants. State medical regulators have issued opinions on specific tasks, including one that limits delegation of skin closure to certified or licensed non-physicians. Another state nursing rule spells out which tasks nurses can pass along to staff who hold no license. Ask a future employer which tasks they would train you for.

Our list covers 21 Kentucky schools that send graduate counts for medical assistant programs to the federal college survey. 14 of those schools run accredited programs. Accreditation means an outside organization reviewed the program and checked that it meets agreed standards for the training offered.

Nationally, students in career school programs finish in a median of 9 months, with most completing their studies in 7 to 9 months. Across the public colleges in our national list, median in-district tuition and fees are $4,346 for a year of full-time study. Career schools nationally that quote one price for the full program charge a median of $17,257, and that figure covers books too.

Classes in some programs happen online. Even so, students complete their externship in person. An externship is supervised, in-person clinical practice.

These nationwide median pay figures, dated May 2025, show where this job falls among similar health care careers.

Your next step takes a couple of minutes: open our Kentucky page, pick the accredited program that fits you, and send that one school the short "Request information" form after the program table.