Medical assistants typically earn more than CNAs.
CNAs, or certified nursing assistants, provide bedside care by feeding and bathing patients who are physically or mentally ill. Medical assistants help doctors during patient exams and collect specimens for laboratory testing. Employment of nursing assistants is expected to climb 18 percent through 2018, while employment of medical assistants should increase 34 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. CNAs must complete 75 hours of training, while medical assistants complete one-year certificate or two-year associate degree programs. Medical assistants often make a couple more dollars per hour than CNAs do.
Median Wage
Median hourly wages of nursing assistants in May 2008 were $11.46, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle 50 percent of nursing assistants made about $9.71 to $13.76 per hour. Meanwhile, the median annual wage of medical assistants in May 2008 was $28,300, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics--which equals to an hourly wage of about $13.61. The middle 50 percent of medical assistants earned about $11.39 to $15.89 an hour.
Geographic Location
Some areas offer better salaries to both CNAs and medical assistants than others, according to SalaryExpert.com. For example, average CNA salaries in 2010 were the highest in the Southwestern city of Phoenix--at $33,827--as well as in the Midwestern city of Chicago, where the figure was $33,195. The lowest-paying cities were both Houston and Dallas in Texas, where the average salaries were $27,703 and $29,125 respectively.
Average salaries for medical assistants also were highest in Chicago and lowest in Houston. The Chicago average was $40,997, while the Houston average was $36,052. On the other hand, Dallas had the second-highest average salary for medical assistants at $40,111, reports SalaryExpert.com.
Experience
Medical assistants typically make more than CNAs who have the same number of years of field experience. The median hourly wage of CNAs who had one to four years of experience in 2010 was $9.04 to $11.51, according to Payscale.com. The median rate for those with more than 20 years of experience was $10.37 to $14.55. On the other hand, the median salary for medical assistants who had one to four years of experience was $20,395 to $30,375--or about $9.81 to $14.60 an hour. The figure for medical assistants with more than two decades of experience was $27,849 to $39,101--or about $13.39 to $18.80 per hour, reports Payscale.com.
Medical Assistant Industries
Median annual wages of medical assistants were highest--at $29,720 in May 2008, or about $14.29 per hour--for those who worked in general medical and surgical hospitals. Medical assistants who worked in other settings such as outpatient care centers, post-secondary education institutions or doctors’ offices earned salaries in the lower $28,000 range--about $13-plus an hour. Meanwhile, those who worked in other health care offices made earnings in the $25,000 range, or about $12 per hour.
CNA Industries
Hospitals, along with employment services, also paid out the highest median hourly wages for nursing assistants in May 2008, at slightly more than $12 per hour. Nursing assistants who worked in nursing care facilities made earnings in the $11 range, while those who worked in home health care services and community care facilities for the elderly made earnings in the $10 range.
