Medical Administrative Assistant salary in Knoxville, TN

Pay in Knoxville against Tennessee and the US

Medical administrative assistants at the 90th percentile earn $58,120, 1.8 times the 10th percentile; the US ratio is 1.7. The middle half of medical administrative assistants in Knoxville earns $36,120–$45,930. The mean ($42,300) is 10% over the median, so a group of high earners pulls the average up; price a typical hire from the median. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $9,810 wide, against $10,410 across Tennessee and $12,010 nationally: employers in Knoxville pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a medical administrative assistant here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $7,510 over the median, the 25th only $2,300 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $9,690 a year in employer cost. These percentiles describe what people in the job earn locally, not experience levels, so place your offer by the tasks and seniority you need.

For scale, the US median of $45,930 falls between the 75th and 90th percentiles in Knoxville, and the Tennessee statewide median of $39,940 falls between the median and the 75th percentile. An offer at the national rate would beat what three quarters of local medical administrative assistants earn.

What a hire really costs in Knoxville

At the $38,420 median, a local hire costs about $49,574 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $11,154 here. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

We place executive assistants, customer support and e-commerce staff today; for medical administrative assistants we answer within one business day whether we can help. Enter the monthly pay you have in mind to compare it with a local hire. The fee field shows our standard fee³; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool⁴.

Other roles in Knoxville

Of the 17 roles we track in Knoxville, this one ranks #16 by median pay, between customer support specialists ($38,840) and virtual receptionists ($35,620). Project Coordinator is the highest at $91,690.

Measured against the US median, medical administrative assistants rank #15 of the 17 roles we track in Knoxville (-16.4%), between sales development representatives (-15.1%) and marketing specialists (-20.1%). The typical role here is at -11.0%, so, measured against the US, medical administrative assistants cost less in Knoxville than the area's general pay level would suggest. Medical administrative assistants hold 13.4% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Knoxville, 11.5% across Tennessee and 6.1% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Tennessee

Across the 14 areas of Tennessee with data for this job, the median runs from $36,230 in the East Tennessee nonmetro area to $45,570 in Nashville-Murfreesboro, a gap of $9,340 a year. All 2 areas in Tennessee with more medical administrative assistants than Knoxville also pay more, among them Nashville-Murfreesboro, TN ($45,570) and Memphis, TN-MS ($39,940).

Knoxville against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Knoxville is #35 of 514 US areas for this job. It is one of the larger markets for this job, with pay near the middle of the US range. Outside Tennessee, Youngstown-Warren and Charleston pay just above Knoxville and Hickory-Lenoir and Paducah just below. All four are within $120 a year of the median in Knoxville. Of the three markets with about as many medical administrative assistants, all three pay more.

Questions

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.