What Dental Assistants earn in Suffolk County, MA
The median pay for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA is $58,160 per year, which works out to $27.96 per hour. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area, the labor market that Suffolk County, MA belongs to. Half of the workers in this occupation earn more than the median and half earn less, which makes it a sturdier yardstick than an average that a few very high earners can pull upward.
The mean wage is $57,520, which is 1.1% below the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 7,190 people working in this occupation across the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Suffolk County, MA has roughly 785,121 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Dental Assistants in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $47,780 a year ($22.97 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $72,780 or more ($34.99 an hour). That is a gap of $25,000 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $48,770 at the 25th percentile and $61,050 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.5 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA is $27.96. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $58,160, and the same salary is $4,847 a month before taxes or about $2,237 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $22.20 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Dental Assistants
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Dental Assistants this way: "Perform limited clinical duties under the direction of a dentist. Clinical duties may include equipment preparation and sterilization, preparing patients for treatment, assisting the dentist during treatment, and providing patients with instructions for oral healthcare procedures. May perform administrative duties such as scheduling appointments, maintaining medical records, billing, and coding information for insurance purposes."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Prepare patient, sterilize or disinfect instruments, set up instrument trays, prepare materials, or assist dentist during dental procedures"; "Expose dental diagnostic x-rays"; "Record treatment information in patient records"; "Take and record medical and dental histories and vital signs of patients".
Job outlook for Dental Assistants
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 388,600 jobs in 2025 to 417,400 in 2035, a change of +7.4%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 53,000 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 13.6% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: postsecondary nondegree award. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $48,070 for this occupation; the Suffolk County, MA median of $58,160 is 21.0% above it.
How pay in Suffolk County, MA compares
Compared with the Massachusetts average
Suffolk County, MA pays above the state benchmark. The Massachusetts employment-weighted average for Dental Assistants is $55,632; the local median of $58,160 beats it by $2,528, or 4.5%. Within Massachusetts, Suffolk County, MA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Dental Assistants is $49,310 across the contiguous United States. At $58,160, Suffolk County, MA pays $8,850 more, which is 17.9% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Suffolk County, MA
Among the 581 occupations with published wages in Suffolk County, MA, Dental Assistants ranks number 394 by median pay, ahead of about 32% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Natural Sciences Managers at $291,000 a year, which is $232,840 more than the median for Dental Assistants.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $58,160 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $11,988 a year, which leaves $46,172, or $3,848 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $21 goes to taxes and $79 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 20.6%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $42,410. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $4,851, an effective 8.3% of gross pay, well below the 12% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $3,606 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $843. FICA totals $4,449, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Massachusetts
Massachusetts income tax on this salary is $2,688 a year, or 4.6% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 55% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $224 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Suffolk County, MA
IRS Statistics of Income data for Suffolk County, MA show an average adjusted gross income of $126,469 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 18.3% across all filers. Filers in the $50,000 to under $75,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 8.3%, compared with the 8.3% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Suffolk County, MA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Suffolk County, MA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $46,172 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Suffolk County, MA is $2,518 a month, or $30,216 a year. A two-bedroom costs $3,008 a month. For Dental Assistants, a one-bedroom absorbs 65.4% of take-home pay and 52.0% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 5.9% of gross pay for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Massachusetts residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $3,101 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $867, for $3,968 in total. Gasoline in Massachusetts averages $3.33 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,542.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $39,161 a year, 85% of take-home pay. That leaves $7,011 a year, or $584 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 12.1% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Suffolk County, MA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Suffolk County, MA: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Suffolk County, MA, set beside the Massachusetts and national medians.
Property taxes in Suffolk County, MA
Homeowners in Suffolk County, MA pay a median of $4,649 a year in real estate taxes, 22% below the Massachusetts median of $5,992 and 49% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $705,800, the median tax bill is 0.66% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Dental Assistants median of $58,160, a tax bill of that size would equal 8.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Suffolk County, MA
Renters in Suffolk County, MA pay a median gross rent of $2,129 a month in the Census survey, 21% above the Massachusetts median of $1,762. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $2,518 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $705,800, 26% above the Massachusetts median of $562,100. Median household income is $95,631, 8% below the Massachusetts median of $103,960, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 31.6% of that income.
Commuting in Suffolk County, MA
Workers in Suffolk County, MA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 30.9 minutes each way, 6% above the Massachusetts average of 29.1. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.2 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 19.9% of workers in Suffolk County, MA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Dental Assistants afford to live in Suffolk County, MA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $58,160 that ceiling is $1,454 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,518 is $1,064 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $48.42 an hour; the median for Dental Assistants is $27.96, which is 42% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $22.20 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 26.2 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $3,008 a month means $1,504 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $12,168 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $19,179.
How fast you can save
At $584 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 18 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 36 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Dental Assistants pay in Suffolk County, MA
What is the hourly wage for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA?
The median is $27.96 per hour, based on $58,160 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $22.97 at the 10th percentile to $34.99 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $58,160 becomes $46,172 a year. That is $3,848 a month, $1,776 every two weeks or $888 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA?
Total taxes are $11,988 a year, an effective rate of 20.6%: $4,851 federal income tax, $4,449 FICA and $2,688 Massachusetts income tax.
Is pay for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA above the Massachusetts average?
Yes. The local median of $58,160 is +4.5% versus the Massachusetts average of $55,632, a difference of $2,528 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Dental Assistants salary in Suffolk County, MA?
A one-bedroom costs $2,518 a month against take-home pay of $3,848, which is 65.4% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,454 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Dental Assistants in Suffolk County, MA?
About $584 a month ($7,011 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $39,161 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Suffolk County, MA at the 30% guideline?
$48.42 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $30,216 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Dental Assistants is $27.96.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Massachusetts rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.