Medical Administrative Assistant salary in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA

Pay in Santa Cruz-Watsonville against California and the US

The middle half of medical administrative assistants in Santa Cruz-Watsonville earns $47,240–$60,120. The top tenth earns $70,120 or more, 1.6 times the bottom tenth, close to the US pattern of 1.7 times. The mean ($54,640) is 9% 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 $12,880 wide, between the figure for California ($16,740) and the US figure ($12,010).

What to budget for a medical administrative assistant here

Pay climbs faster above the median than below it here: the 75th percentile is $9,890 over the median, the 25th only $2,990 under it. An offer at the 75th percentile adds about $12,761 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 10th and 25th percentiles in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, and the California statewide median of $54,490 falls between the median and the 75th percentile. An offer at the national rate would be lower than what three quarters of local medical administrative assistants earn.

What a hire really costs in Santa Cruz-Watsonville

At the $50,230 median, a local hire costs about $64,813 a year: benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², about $14,583 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 Santa Cruz-Watsonville

Of the 17 roles we track in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, this one ranks #13 by median pay, between administrative assistants ($57,510) and customer support specialists ($48,110). Project Coordinator is the highest at $106,780.

Measured against the US median, medical administrative assistants rank #9 of the 17 roles we track in Santa Cruz-Watsonville (+9.4%), between executive assistants (+9.8%) and data entry specialists (+8.8%). The typical role here is at +9.4%, so this job follows the area's general pay level. Medical administrative assistants hold 8.7% of the jobs in these 17 roles in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, 6.9% across California and 6.1% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in California

Across the 28 areas of California with data for this job, the median runs from $45,820 in El Centro to $69,350 in San Jose-Sunnyvale, a gap of $23,530 a year. Of the 17 areas in California with more medical administrative assistants than Santa Cruz-Watsonville, 8 pay less, the largest of them Riverside-San Bernardino, CA ($49,820), Fresno, CA ($48,120) and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks, CA ($49,800).

Santa Cruz-Watsonville against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Santa Cruz-Watsonville is #228 of 514 US areas for this job. It is a mid-sized market, and its pay is in the top quarter of US areas. Outside California, Fairbanks-College and Bend pay just above Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Vineland and Iowa City just below. All four are within $410 a year of the median in Santa Cruz-Watsonville. Of the three markets with about as many medical administrative assistants, none pays as much.

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