In this paper, a novel low profile planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) with high gain and low specific absorption rate (SAR) using a miniaturized artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is investigated. The performance of the PIFA antenna is analyzed with AMC to understand the contribution of AMC. The gain enhancement of the PIFA antenna is achieved by applying AMC below the antenna. Furthermore, the placement of AMC also reduces the SAR of the antenna and improves the antenna front-to-back ratio (FBR). The proposed antenna when measured has an impedance bandwidth of 4.8–6.7 GHz (33% with center frequency at 5.75 GHz) which is suitable for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), satellite uplink C-band, and sub-6 5G applications with the maximum gain of 7.6 dBi. The performance of the proposed antenna is analyzed by full-wave commercial electromagnetic software and verified by measurements.