Medical assistants are vital to the smooth operation of health care facilities.
Medical assistants perform administrative functions, such as filing patient records and typing documents for physicians. If they record patients' vital signs and prepare patients to get examined by the physicians they support, they can earn higher salaries. Other factors impacting medical assistants' wages in Jacksonville, Florida are the amount of education and work experience they possess.
Average Hourly Wage
Hourly wages that medical assistants receive in Jacksonville, Florida, range from $10 an hour up to $17 an hour, according to Simply Hired. The more experience assistants have, the higher their hourly wages typically are. According to Fair Labor Standards Act laws, some medical assistants can increase their take home pay by working overtime for physicians and other medical professionals they support. For example, Florida's overtime rate is one and one half times employees' standard hourly wages. Therefore, if medical assistants have standard hourly wages of $15, they will receive $22.50 an hour for all time they work above 40 hours in a week.
Medical Assistant Salaries by Employer
Medical assistants who work for Jacksonville hospitals earned approximately $35,000 a year as of April 2011, according to Simply Hired. If they worked in clinics, they earned about $32,000 a year. Assistants who worked for private physicians earned higher annual wages, at $37,000 a year.
National Salaries
According to the American Association of Medical Assistants' 2010 Salary Survey, medical assistants earned an average hourly wage of $15.42 in 2010. The number of years assistants worked in the field caused their salaries to rise. For example, new medical assistants earned approximately $13.23 an hour in 2010, while assistants with 6 to 9 years of experience earned $15.25 an hour. Medical assistants with 16 or more years experience earned as much as $17.50 an hour. Nearly 78 percent of assistants are paid an annual salary rather than by the hour. The average annual salary that medical assistants across the country received was $49,487 as of 2010. This represents an increase over the previous year's $44,882 average annual salary.
Support for Florida Medical Assistants
The Florida Society of Medical Assistants provide networking, as well as educational and leadership training support for medical assistants working in the state. Assistants who are employed in Jacksonville, Florida, can also receive medical certifications by contacting the American Association of Medical Assistants.
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