Home/Jobs/Medical Assistant/San Diego, CA
Medical Assistant Jobs in San Diego, CA: Pay and Who's Hiring
In San Diego, the May 2025 median is about $49.4K, 8% over the U.S. median and within 3 percent of the California median. The 25th and the 75th are on the table. Those are wages of people already employed, not a quote from a training ad.
Pay
The median is the middle of medical assistants already working, not the wage on a training-program brochure. The 25th is the lower quarter. The 75th is the upper quarter, often people who already room, inject, and keep the front desk from drowning. Compare your certificate and your years with that upper quarter before you accept the middle.
| Percentile | Metro | CA | U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th | $47,690 | $46,240 | $38,470 |
| Median | $49,420 | $49,660 | $45,690 |
| 75th | $60,480 | $61,870 | $49,180 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Hiring difficulty and demand
Who's hiring
San Diego is outside the provider extract, so employer names are not listed.
License and training
California does not license medical assistants. The Medical Board says they are unlicensed people who do routine technical support in an office or clinic, with the supervisor on the premises, and they may not be used for inpatient care in a general acute hospital. Injections, skin tests, and blood draws wait on the training in the regulations, and starting an IV is off the list.
Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, medical assistants Medical Board of California, medical assistants Florida Statutes section 458.3485, medical assistant N.J.A.C. 13:35-6.4, delegation to certified medical assistants Washington RCW 18.360, medical assistants Washington State Department of Health, medical assistant FAQ AAMA index of state scope pages, used to find the statutes above and not as a substitute for them
The work
The morning is the waiting room and the rooms behind it. You pull the chart, take blood pressure and weight, and ask what the clinician will not have time to restart. Then you stock, sterilize, and answer the call that is really a refill request.
Clinical tasks depend on the state and on what the supervising clinician will put their name on. Scheduling, insurance forms, and supply orders are the half of the job that still has to happen when the last patient is late. Some assistants do both halves. Some offices split them.
A good shift is quiet in the places that matter, because the vitals match the person in the room and the specimen label matches the order. The note in the chart is what the patient said, not the shorter version you were rushing toward.
Nearby metros
- Riverside, CA · 79 miles
- El Centro, CA · 92 miles
- Los Angeles, CA · 111 miles
- Oxnard, CA · 153 miles
Related roles
- CNA jobs in San Diego
- Pharmacy Technician jobs in San Diego
- Phlebotomist jobs in San Diego
- Registered Nurse jobs in San Diego
One manager hiring: Hire a Medical Assistant in San Diego.
Medical Assistants hiring pages Hiring difficulty for Medical Assistants in San Diego
Upload your resume, see your match score, and let local employers find you
Questions
What do medical assistants earn in San Diego, CA?
In San Diego, the May 2025 median is about $49.4K, 8% over the U.S. median and within 3 percent of the California median. The 25th and the 75th are on the table. Those are wages of people already employed, not a quote from a training ad.
Who hires medical assistants in San Diego?
Physician offices are the main workplace, with hospitals and outpatient centers behind them. A solo clinic in San Diego is hiring against those offices, not against a distant health system.
Can a medical assistant give injections in California?
Only if California allows that delegation and the supervisor meets the rule on the state line. This page writes the rule for the states we could source and tells you to check the board everywhere else. Do not borrow another state's duty list for a clinic in San Diego.
Is San Diego going to need more medical assistants?
National employment is projected to change 12.9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 109.7 thousand openings a year, and that line describes the country rather than San Diego. Read San Diego from the wage table and from a deeper bench of these workers than a typical metro, then compare it with Riverside, CA.