Medical assistants
take on many of the duties of a physician's workload to free him up to care for a patient. For medical assistants in Michigan, salaries fall just under the national average for the field.
Prescription for Success
While there is no required training program or education required to be a medical assistant, Michigan candidates for the career should attend one of the hundreds of medical assisting post-secondary education programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs. Michigan is home to 25 accredited schools offering a short-term certificate or two-year associate degree in the field, including Baker College of Allen park, Davenport University (multiple locations), Schoolcraft College, Montcalm Community College, Oakland Community College-Waterford and Glen Oaks Community College. No licensing or certification is required.
Average Salary
Michigan's 20,150 medical assistants earned an average statewide salary of approximately $28,140 in 2009, just under the national average of $29,450 for the profession, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A portion of the state's medical assistants did earn higher-than-average salaries; earners in the 90th percentile received $37,080 per year. At the other end of the moneyline, Michigan's lowest-paid medical assistants earned $21,300 per year.
Geography
Within Michigan itself, only two areas broke the $30,000 salary range in 2009 -- Ann Arbor, with an average medical assistant salary of $30,460, and Jackson, with an average salary of $30,200. Ann Arbor was also the city with the highest 90th percentile salary, at $43,270, but Jackson's $39,690 90th percentile fell to third place, behind the Niles-Benton Harbor area, with a 90th percentile salary of $40,370. Niles-Benton Harbor did have an average salary just over the statewide average, at $28,250, but fell below the national average.
Low-Paying Cities
The worst-paying cities for medical assistants in Michigan were Saginaw, with a 10th-percentile wage of $18,480 per year and an average of $24,980 per year, and Flint, with a 10th-percentile wage of $19,730. Flint's average salary of $27,330 was still higher than some of the other lower-paying cities. Bay City, for example, paid medical assistants an average salary of $25,210 per year and $19,730 in the 10th percentile.
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