Medical assistant salary in Louisiana

A median is the midpoint of the pay range. For Louisiana medical assistants, half make more than $36,320 and half make less, based on the BLS wage survey. The plain average, or mean, lands nearly the same at $36,180 a year.

The middle half of Louisiana medical assistants earn between $32,020 and $38,550 a year. Those in the lowest-paid 10% make $28,970 or less, while the highest-paid 10% make $44,460 or more.

Louisiana sits below most of the nation for this pay. Its median is 21% under the US median of $45,690. For median medical assistant pay, Louisiana ranks 49 of 51, in a ranking that includes the 50 states and Washington, DC (BLS).

Even so, the work is widely available in Louisiana. The state has about 12,310 medical assistant jobs, which is 6.4 for every 1,000 jobs. For how common the role is, Louisiana ranks 9 of 51.

Your location can shift pay by a few thousand dollars a year. The table shows the metro areas with the highest and lowest medians in Louisiana, along with the area that has the largest number of jobs.

People often compare medical assisting with nursing or other quick routes into health care. Here is how the middle pay for each role looks in Louisiana and across the country (BLS).

Registered nurses sit at the top, with a median of $80,230 in Louisiana and $97,550 nationwide. Licensed practical or vocational nurses come next, at $57,470 in the state and $64,400 across the US. Medical assistants earn $36,320 in Louisiana, about the same as phlebotomists at $36,120 and more than nursing assistants at $30,510.

Within Louisiana, medical assistants earn roughly what phlebotomists earn, and they come out ahead of nursing assistants. The two nursing jobs pay higher.

The growth outlook is weak. Louisiana's labor agency expects medical assistant jobs to climb from 14,370 in 2024 up to 15,180 by 2034, which is a 5.6% increase. The projected US increase is 12.5%, and Louisiana comes in last, 51 of 51, for expected growth (Projections Central).

Still, openings appear on a regular basis. Louisiana is expected to have about 1,830 medical assistant openings each year, including newly created jobs and workers leaving the field.

Our list includes 34 Louisiana schools that report medical assistant graduates in the federal education data (College Navigator). Of the 34 Louisiana schools, 1 has an accredited program. Accreditation means an outside organization, CAAHEP or ABHES, has examined the program and given approval.

The training can be fairly brief. Across the US, at career schools that report program length, the median completion time is 9 months. For a full career school program nationwide, the median published price is $17,257. By comparison, a public college's median tuition and fees for one year of full-time study come to $4,346 (IPEDS).

Some coursework may be online. The hands-on clinical portion, often called an externship, is supervised practice in a real clinic and always happens face to face.

Ready to start? Go to our Louisiana programs page, choose the accredited program and send the short Request information form with your name, email, phone, ZIP code and start time. The request goes to that school.