Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 31-9092, #560 of 1,410 by filings
MEDICAL ASSISTANT
- Biggest sponsor
- San Francisco Health Care and Rehab Inc. · 26% of its filings
- Busiest state
- CA · 48% of its filings
- Major group
- Healthcare support · SOC 31
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Too few cases for a rate
27 decided filings: too few for an approval rate.
Why
Across every PERM case DOL decided in this window, 3.20% were denied. At that rate a file this size comes back clean most of the time whatever the occupation did, so a percentage would be a fact about how few cases there are. Telling a clean record apart from the field takes about 117 decided cases.
Median wage
$42,432
all PERM $103,272
Filings
27
#560 of 1,410
Approval
Not shown
withheld: 27 decided
Median days
390
87 faster than the field
What it pays
Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.
Median offered wage
$42,432median of 27 filings, too few decided to rank
Approval rate
not shownunder 30 decided
Median days to decision
390 daysmiddle of 27 decided, too few to rank
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
Who files it
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.
Sponsors filing it
- San Francisco Health Care and Rehab Inc. 7 filings
- KidneyHR LLC 5 filings
- TAMPICO HEALTHCARE CENTER, LLC. 2 filings
- Academic Medical Research Institute 1 filings
- Accessible Physician Home Care LLC 1 filings
- AG Family Medicine, PC 1 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 17 of 27 filings, 63% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Law Offices of Andrew Y Jin ASC PC 7 filings
- Law Offices of Morano International 5 filings
- CBI IMMIGRATION LAW 1 filings
- Immigration Consulting Project 1 filings
- KGI Law Firm LLC 1 filings
- LAW OFFICE OF KISUK PAEK, PC 1 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 16 of 27 filings, 59% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 13
- Georgia 5
- Texas 2
- Utah 2
- Virginia 2
- Connecticut 1
How this is counted
The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 25 of 27 filings.
Where the work is
- San Francisco, CA 7
- Eatonton, GA 4
- Walnut Creek, CA 2
- Anandale, VA 1
- Annandale, VA 1
- Brooklyn, NY 1
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 16 of 27 filings.
- Every sponsor that files it, by state, approval rate, offered wage and time to a decision
- Every filing for it, PERM, wage requests and H-1B, case by case
Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023
From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.
Country of citizenship
- South Korea 57
- Venezuela 15
- Philippines 14
- Brazil 8
- Mexico 8
- China 7
Worker's education
- Bachelor's 57
- High School 35
- Associate's 25
- None 25
- Master's 14
- Other 12
Visa held when filed
- F-1 58
- B-2 22
- NOT IN USA 10
- E-2 7
- EWI 7
- H-1B 6
Schools
- ASA COLLEGE 6
- MASAN UNIVERSITY 3
- UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI 3
- BEIJING UNIVERSITY OF CHINESE MEDICINE 2
- DONGGUK UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES 2
- GACHON UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE 2
Fields of study
- NURSING 28
- HIGH SCHOOL 8
- MEDICINE 8
- MEDICAL ASSISTING 6
- SCIENCE 5
- MEDICAL ASSISTANT 4
The job itself
What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.
- United States817,870 jobs
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CASan Francisco, Walnut Creek
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WVAnnandale
- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJBrooklyn
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
- median PERM offer
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $45,690 | ||||
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $59,790 | $48,402 | $55,827 | $63,253 | $70,678 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $46,640 | $39,790 | $44,054 | $48,298 | $52,562 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $48,370 | $41,101 | $45,323 | $49,546 | $53,768 |
How these figures fit together
BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.
The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More
DOL's levels for this job in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA, year by year
Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.
| Wage year | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | $48,402 | $55,827 | $63,253 | $70,678 |
| 2025-26 | $47,445 | $54,974 | $62,483 | $70,013 |
| 2024-25 | $46,176 | $54,122 | $62,088 | $70,034 |
| 2023-24 | $43,493 | $51,064 | $58,635 | $66,206 |
| 2022-23 | $39,811 | $47,341 | $54,870 | $62,400 |
| 2021-22 | $40,061 | $47,008 | $53,955 | $60,902 |
What the job is
Perform administrative and certain clinical duties under the direction of a physician. Administrative duties may include scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding information for insurance purposes. Clinical duties may include taking and recording vital signs and medical histories, preparing patients for examination, drawing blood, and administering medications as directed by physician.
- Preparation
- Medium Preparation Needed
- O*NET Job Zone 3
- DOL's education basis
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Wage year 2026-27
- Jobs, 2025 to 2035
- +12.9%
- About 109,700 openings a year (BLS)
- Typical entry
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- BLS
Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth and numerous job openings.
The work, most important first
- Interview patients to obtain medical information and measure their vital signs, weight, and height.
- Clean and sterilize instruments and dispose of contaminated supplies.
- Record patients' medical history, vital statistics, or information such as test results in medical records.
- Explain treatment procedures, medications, diets, or physicians' instructions to patients.
- Prepare treatment rooms for patient examinations, keeping the rooms neat and clean.
- Collect blood, tissue, or other laboratory specimens, log the specimens, and prepare them for testing.
The education workers in it report
- 21%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 17%
Some College Courses
- 17%
Bachelor's Degree
Titles people use for it
Certified Medical Assistant (CMA), Chiropractor Assistant, Doctor's Assistant, Registered Medical Assistant (RMA), Clinical Medical Assistant, Health Assistant, Ophthalmic Assistant, Ophthalmological Assistant.
Related jobs: Surgical Assistants, Ophthalmic Medical Technicians, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses, Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians, Physical Therapist Aides.
This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 560 of 1,410 by volume: 559 filed at least as many filings, and 850 filed no more.
- Just above
- Information Technology Project Managers 27 filings
- Just below
- Training and Development Managers 27 filings
Other healthcare support roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #577 Massage Therapists 25 filings · 1 denied
- #525 DENTAL ASSISTANT 35 filings · 3 denied
- #716 Orderlies 15 filings · none denied
- #784 Medical Transcriptionists 11 filings · none denied
- #790 Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers 11 filings · 2 denied
- #321 Physical Therapist Assistants 93 filings · 6 denied
The same job on H-1B
15 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $51,605 a year; the middle half ran $33,280 to $57,200. By state and year in the salary explorer.
Notes on these numbers
Reading the wage
A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.
What the median is
The median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.
What these numbers don't say
4 notes
- The code is the identity
- This one is SOC 31-9092. Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
- A median isn’t an offer
- It's the middle of all 27 wages committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
- Approval isn’t about the occupation
- The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title, so nothing here is a property of MEDICAL ASSISTANT. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 27 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is San Francisco Health Care and Rehab Inc.. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built
Weighing an offer?
Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.
Setting one?
All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.
Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load
O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year
BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring
BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn
DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july
What each source includes
Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.
Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.
O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.
BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.
BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.
DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.
Cite this page
Waiting on a PERM case?
- When it'll likely be decided
- An email when DOL moves it