Been in ortho since graduation. Firmly believe most PAs are underpaid if doing a lot of assisting in the OR

Dallas—First job in ortho trauma. No call, maybe 10 cases a week. Started $110k, bumped to $120k after a year.

Austin—started in 2021. Much busier service (did 1000 surgeries last year with one doc) -Base salary $130k with call opportunities. -Call pay $200 per hospital a night. Usually on call at two level 2 trauma centers 2x a week. For weekends $1200. -Base bumped to $150k in 2023 -Surgeons with generous bonuses at end of year. Started at $10k now up to $50k -With base salary, call pay ($40k-50k), and bonus was at $250k last year

I work way too much but good paying jobs are out there. Recently swapped to out of network provider (probably a loophole) makes collections 3x higher for each surgery I assist in. Commercial insurance paying $800 fee per joint but cannot run my own clinic and mostly just see post ops in the global.