A doctor salary can vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on specialty, location, experience, practice setting, workload, and compensation structure. Two physicians with similar training levels may earn dramatically different amounts simply because one works in primary care while the other practices a surgical or procedure-heavy specialty.
In the United States, the median annual wage for physicians and surgeons was $275,930 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A broader physician compensation survey from Doximity reported average physician compensation of $438,269 in 2025. These figures measure compensation differently, so they should not be treated as conflicting estimates. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What Is the Average doctor salary in the United States?
There is no single salary figure that accurately represents every doctor.
The BLS reports a median annual wage of $275,930 for physicians and surgeons. Median means half of workers earned more and half earned less. The same BLS data show the highest 10% earning more than $488,320 annually. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Doximity uses physician compensation survey data rather than the same occupational wage methodology. Its 2026 Physician Compensation Report found that average U.S. physician compensation increased by 2% from 2024 to 2025, reaching approximately $438,269. Doximity
That difference highlights an important point: when comparing doctor salary statistics, check whether the source reports salary, wages, total compensation, median pay, or average compensation.
Total compensation may include productivity incentives, bonuses, profit distributions, call pay, and other earnings beyond a basic salary.
Doctor Salary Per Month
Using the BLS median annual wage of $275,930 as a simple benchmark:
| Pay Period | Approximate Gross Pay |
|---|---|
| Annual | $275,930 |
| Monthly | $22,994 |
| Weekly | $5,306 |
| Hourly | $132.66 |
These are gross figures before federal and state taxes, retirement contributions, insurance costs, student loan payments, and other deductions. The BLS directly reports an equivalent hourly figure of $132.66. Bureau of Labor Statistics
A physician earning $400,000 or $600,000 annually would naturally have a much higher monthly income, which is why specialty matters so much when discussing physician pay.
doctor salary by Specialty
Specialty is one of the strongest predictors of physician compensation.
Procedure-heavy and surgical fields generally sit toward the top of compensation rankings, while primary care and many pediatric specialties tend to earn less.
Doximity’s 2026 Physician Compensation Report provides the following average compensation estimates based on its physician survey methodology. Doximity
| Medical Specialty | Average Compensation |
|---|---|
| Neurosurgery | $829,161 |
| Thoracic Surgery | $749,707 |
| Orthopaedic Surgery | $696,852 |
| Interventional Radiology | $634,658 |
| Pediatric General Surgery | $627,126 |
| Plastic Surgery | $625,757 |
| Radiation Oncology | $613,837 |
| Radiology | $609,684 |
| Cardiology | $604,635 |
| Vascular Surgery | $600,520 |
| Urology | $566,740 |
| Anesthesiology | $557,131 |
| Otolaryngology (ENT) | $549,810 |
| Gastroenterology | $531,345 |
| Oncology | $519,715 |
| General Surgery | $501,003 |
| Dermatology | $497,509 |
| Ophthalmology | $487,438 |
| Emergency Medicine | $423,723 |
| Obstetrics & Gynecology | $420,859 |
| Pathology | $410,039 |
| Neurology | $371,087 |
| Psychiatry | $350,786 |
| Internal Medicine | $339,274 |
| Family Medicine | $325,040 |
| Endocrinology | $309,782 |
| Geriatrics | $304,411 |
| Pediatrics | $273,665 |
These are averages, not guaranteed salaries. An individual physician’s earnings can fall considerably above or below these figures.
What Is the Highest-Paid Type of Doctor?
Among specialties included in Doximity’s latest compensation analysis, neurosurgery ranked first at $829,161 in average annual compensation, followed by thoracic surgery at $749,707 and orthopaedic surgery at $696,852. Doximity
BLS occupational wage data use a different methodology and classification system. In its May 2025 data, pediatric surgeons had a median annual wage of $559,030, cardiologists $496,010, and radiologists $420,860. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The precise ranking therefore depends on the dataset.
Still, the broader pattern is remarkably consistent: surgical and procedure-intensive specialties tend to be among the highest-paying areas of medicine.
Why Do Specialists Earn More?
Specialty compensation reflects several factors rather than simply the difficulty of a physician’s work.
Procedural specialties may generate higher reimbursement, require longer or more specialized training, involve demanding call schedules, or operate in areas where qualified physicians are scarce.
Patient volume, reimbursement rates, procedure mix, productivity incentives, malpractice costs, and local demand can all influence the final number.
Primary care physicians perform enormously important work, but the economics of healthcare reimbursement do not necessarily value every medical service equally.
Primary Care Doctor Salary
Primary care includes fields such as family medicine, general internal medicine, and pediatrics.
Doximity’s latest reported averages include:
- Internal Medicine: $339,274
- Family Medicine: $325,040
- Pediatrics: $273,665
- Geriatrics: $304,411
- Medicine/Pediatrics: $319,995 Doximity
Primary care compensation can still vary significantly. A family physician in an underserved community with recruitment incentives may receive a very different package from a physician working for an academic medical center.
Productivity bonuses can also make headline “salary” figures misleading. A contract might provide a fixed base salary plus compensation tied to patient volume, work relative value units (wRVUs), quality metrics, or other performance measures.
Surgeon Salary
Surgeon pay deserves separate attention because the word “surgeon” covers many distinct specialties.
Doximity reports average compensation of approximately $501,003 for general surgery, compared with $696,852 for orthopaedic surgery and $829,161 for neurosurgery. Doximity
BLS figures likewise demonstrate substantial differences between surgical occupations. Its May 2025 median wage estimates include $559,030 for pediatric surgeons and $358,550 for orthopedic surgeons excluding pediatric specialists. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The highest-paying surgical fields commonly require extensive residency and fellowship training. Higher compensation therefore comes after a long period of education in which trainees earn far less than fully qualified attending physicians.
How Experience Affects doctor salary
Doctors do not normally graduate from medical school and immediately begin earning the compensation associated with established attending physicians.
Their earnings generally progress through several career stages.
Residency
After medical school, physicians complete residency training.
The BLS notes that physicians typically need 3 to 9 years of internship and residency, depending on specialty. Subspecialization can require another 1 to 3 years of fellowship training. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Residents receive a salary, but their earnings are substantially below typical attending-physician compensation.
Fellowship
Some physicians pursue additional subspecialty training after residency.
Examples include cardiology after internal medicine or certain surgical subspecialties after general surgical training.
Fellows remain physicians in training, and their compensation generally remains well below what they can earn once practicing independently in their specialty.
Early-Career Physician
Compensation typically rises substantially when a doctor moves from training into an attending position.
The first employment contract can include more than base salary. Signing bonuses, relocation assistance, productivity incentives, loan repayment programs, and guaranteed initial compensation may all affect the package.
Experienced Physician
With experience, physicians may develop larger patient panels, take leadership positions, become partners in medical groups, increase procedural volume, or negotiate stronger compensation arrangements.
However, years in medicine do not automatically guarantee higher earnings. Specialty, ownership structure, geography, and workload can sometimes matter more.
doctor salary by Practice Setting
Where a physician works can be almost as important as what specialty they practice.
According to Doximity’s 2026 report, average physician compensation varied substantially across employment settings. Doximity
| Practice Setting | Average Compensation |
|---|---|
| Single-Specialty Group | $480,961 |
| Multi-Specialty Group | $477,033 |
| Hospital | $454,440 |
| Health System / IDN / ACO | $451,233 |
| Solo Practice | $440,424 |
| Health Maintenance Organization | $419,170 |
| Industry | $413,196 |
| Academic | $389,591 |
| Hospital/System – Ambulatory | $382,916 |
| Urgent Care Center/Chain | $326,447 |
| Government | $311,502 |
The table should not be interpreted as proof that changing workplaces automatically produces a particular salary increase.
Different practice settings attract different specialties and physician populations, and compensation structures vary.
Private Practice
Private practice can provide opportunities for physicians to benefit from business ownership and practice profits.
It also introduces financial risk.
Owners may be responsible for employees, rent, equipment, billing, insurance, technology, compliance, and other operating expenses.
A physician who generates $700,000 in practice revenue does not personally earn $700,000. Business expenses must be paid first.
Hospital Employment
Hospital-employed physicians may receive predictable base salaries along with bonuses tied to productivity, quality, patient satisfaction, or organizational goals.
Employment can reduce some of the administrative and financial responsibilities associated with owning a practice.
Academic Medicine
Academic physicians often combine patient care with teaching, research, administration, and mentoring.
Average compensation can be lower than in some private-sector settings. Doximity’s 2026 report placed average academic compensation at $389,591. Doximity
The trade-off may include research opportunities, teaching responsibilities, institutional resources, and a career centered partly on advancing medical knowledge rather than maximizing clinical income.
doctor salary by Location
Geography can produce surprisingly large compensation differences.
Higher salaries do not always occur in the cities with the highest living costs. Physician shortages, competition among employers, specialty demand, reimbursement conditions, and local workforce supply can sometimes push compensation higher in less obvious markets.
Doximity’s latest report found Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, had the highest average physician compensation among the metropolitan areas included in its analysis, at $495,617. Doximity
Its ten highest-paying metros were:
| Metro Area | Average Compensation |
|---|---|
| Oklahoma City, OK | $495,617 |
| Sacramento, CA | $484,817 |
| Rochester, MN | $478,861 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $469,047 |
| Louisville, KY | $465,924 |
| San Francisco, CA | $462,806 |
| Omaha, NE | $460,973 |
| San Jose, CA | $459,691 |
| Phoenix, AZ | $458,686 |
| Seattle, WA | $456,523 |
At the lower end of the metros included in the same analysis were Durham–Chapel Hill, San Antonio, Ann Arbor, Birmingham, Providence, Boston, Baltimore, Greenville, Detroit, and Nashville. Doximity
Does a Higher Salary Mean Better Purchasing Power?
Not necessarily.
A $450,000 salary in an expensive metropolitan area may provide less disposable income than a somewhat lower salary in a region with cheaper housing, taxes, childcare, and everyday expenses.
Physicians comparing jobs should therefore consider real purchasing power, not salary alone.
Doximity even combines compensation information with housing-cost data in its Salary Map, reflecting how closely income and local costs are connected. Doximity
What Determines a Doctor’s Salary?
Several variables interact to determine physician earnings.
1. Medical Specialty
Specialty creates some of the largest compensation differences.
Neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, orthopaedic surgery, interventional radiology, cardiology, and other procedural specialties tend to rank near the top of compensation surveys. Primary care and pediatric subspecialties frequently appear lower.
2. Geographic Demand
Areas struggling to recruit doctors may offer higher salaries, signing bonuses, relocation packages, or loan-repayment assistance.
This creates a counterintuitive situation where doctors may sometimes earn more outside the country’s most prestigious or expensive cities.
3. Practice Setting
A government physician, academic doctor, hospital employee, solo practitioner, and partner in a specialty group can have very different compensation arrangements.
The latest Doximity data show particularly strong average compensation in single-specialty and multi-specialty groups. Doximity
4. Productivity
Many physician contracts contain productivity components.
A physician might receive a guaranteed base salary and additional compensation after exceeding a defined productivity threshold.
Measures such as wRVUs are commonly incorporated into physician compensation systems.
The American Medical Association reports that physician compensation has increasingly moved toward blended models involving salary, productivity, and bonuses, rather than relying on one mechanism alone. American Medical Association
5. Procedures and Reimbursement
Physicians do not receive identical reimbursement for every type of medical service.
Procedure-heavy specialties can therefore have different revenue potential from cognitive specialties centered on evaluation, diagnosis, and ongoing disease management.
Insurance mix also matters. Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and self-pay patients may generate different reimbursement levels.
6. Working Hours and Call Responsibilities
Higher compensation may come with substantial workload demands.
A doctor regularly taking overnight call or handling emergency procedures cannot be compared fairly with someone working a more predictable schedule solely on annual income.
When evaluating compensation, calculate the effective earnings relative to hours worked, call burden, vacation, and administrative responsibilities.
7. Ownership
Physicians who own part of a practice may receive income beyond a traditional employee salary.
Ownership can potentially increase long-term earnings, but it also means assuming business expenses and financial risk.
Salary vs. Total Physician Compensation
This distinction explains many apparently contradictory salary statistics online.
Salary generally refers to guaranteed employment pay.
Total compensation can include:
- Base salary
- Productivity incentives
- Performance bonuses
- Call compensation
- Partnership distributions
- Profit sharing
- Administrative stipends
- Other employment-related earnings
Benefits such as employer retirement contributions, malpractice insurance, health insurance, paid leave, and continuing medical education allowances may also add substantial value to an employment package even when they are not counted as cash compensation.
For that reason, comparing two offers using only the advertised base salary can produce the wrong conclusion.
Why BLS and Physician Salary Surveys Show Different Numbers
Someone researching doctor salary figures will quickly encounter numbers ranging from around $275,000 to well above $400,000 for physicians overall.
The difference often comes down to methodology.
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program estimates occupational wages and currently reports a $275,930 median annual wage for physicians and surgeons. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Doximity’s physician-focused research instead analyzes physician compensation survey responses. Its 2026 report draws on roughly 250,000 compensation survey responses collected over seven years, including nearly 23,000 U.S. physicians surveyed during 2025. Doximity
Neither statistic should be casually substituted for the other.
When evaluating salary data, ask four questions:
- Is the figure a mean or median?
- Does it measure salary or total compensation?
- Which specialties are included?
- What year does the underlying data represent?
Those questions make salary comparisons considerably more meaningful.
Are Doctor Salaries Increasing?
Nominal physician compensation has recently increased, but the long-term picture is more complicated.
Doximity reports that average physician compensation increased 2% from 2024 to 2025, following a 3.7% increase in the previous period. Doximity
Inflation changes the interpretation.
Doximity’s analysis estimated average physician compensation at $438,269 in 2025 but calculated inflation-adjusted real compensation at $332,976. It reported that physician purchasing power had fallen by nearly 3% compared with 2017 after adjustment using the Consumer Price Index. Doximity
So doctors may see their nominal paycheck increase while experiencing much smaller—or even negative—growth in real purchasing power.
Reimbursement pressure is another part of the equation. Changes to Medicare and Medicaid payments, insurance reimbursement, operating expenses, staffing costs, and consolidation across healthcare organizations can influence how much of healthcare spending ultimately reaches physicians.
Is There a Gender Pay Gap Among Doctors?
Yes. Recent physician compensation data continue to show a significant gap.
Doximity’s 2026 report found a 26% physician gender pay gap in 2025 after modeling factors including specialty, location, and years of experience. The estimated nominal compensation difference was $122,276. Doximity
The report found men earning more across every specialty examined, although the size of the difference varied by field.
Pay disparities are complex. Specialty representation, hours, practice ownership, career interruptions, negotiation, leadership opportunities, referral patterns, productivity structures, and other systemic factors can influence earnings.
Looking only at the national average therefore hides important differences within the physician workforce.
How Long Does It Take to Earn a Full Doctor Salary?
Medicine has one of the longest training pathways among major professions.
The standard U.S. pathway generally involves undergraduate education followed by four years of medical school. Physicians then complete residency, which the BLS says typically lasts 3 to 9 years depending on specialty. A subspecialty fellowship may add another 1 to 3 years. Bureau of Labor Statistics
That means the compensation associated with independent medical practice often arrives years after a person completes college.
This matters when comparing medicine with other high-paying careers.
A $400,000 physician salary sounds exceptionally high in isolation, but a complete financial comparison should account for the length of training, resident and fellow earnings, educational debt, delayed retirement contributions, licensing expenses, malpractice costs, and the number of working hours required.
Are Doctors Still in Demand?
The physician profession combines high compensation with continued labor demand.
The BLS projects overall employment of physicians and surgeons to grow 4% from 2025 through 2035, approximately as fast as the average for all occupations. It projects about 22,100 openings per year on average during that period, including openings created as existing workers leave the occupation. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Demand is not distributed evenly.
Some specialties and geographic regions face greater shortages than others. Rural and underserved communities can have particular difficulty recruiting and retaining physicians, potentially affecting compensation packages and incentives.
How to Compare Doctor Salary Offers Properly
A job offering the largest headline salary is not automatically the best-paying position.
Physicians evaluating employment offers should compare the entire economic package.
Start with guaranteed base compensation. Then identify productivity requirements and determine exactly when additional compensation begins.
Next, examine signing and retention bonuses. A large one-time signing bonus can make a first-year package appear more attractive without improving recurring annual earnings.
Consider benefits as well. Employer retirement contributions, health insurance, paid time off, malpractice coverage, continuing medical education funds, relocation assistance, and student loan support can be worth tens of thousands of dollars collectively.
Finally, examine the workload behind the compensation.
A $500,000 job requiring frequent nights, weekends, overnight calls, and substantially more clinical hours may offer a lower effective hourly return than a $400,000 position with a predictable schedule.
A useful comparison therefore considers:
Total compensation ÷ total time and obligations required
—not salary alone.
What Does the Future of doctor salary Look Like?
Physician compensation remains high relative to most U.S. occupations, but future earnings will be shaped by more than physician supply and demand.
Healthcare consolidation, insurance reimbursement, Medicare payment policy, staffing shortages, productivity models, artificial intelligence, telemedicine, administrative burden, and changes in practice ownership can all influence how doctors work and how they are paid.
The compensation model itself is also evolving. AMA research indicates that blended arrangements combining salary, productivity measures, and bonuses have become increasingly prominent. American Medical Association
At the same time, specialty differences remain enormous.
Doximity’s latest data span from more than $800,000 in average compensation for neurosurgery to roughly $218,000 for pediatric infectious disease. Doximity
That spread makes one universal “average doctor salary” far less useful than it first appears.
For a realistic estimate, start with the physician’s specialty, then account for location, experience, practice setting, workload, productivity model, ownership, benefits, and cost of living.
The broad benchmark is still useful: the BLS reports a median physician and surgeon wage of $275,930, while physician-focused compensation research places average total compensation considerably higher. But the most meaningful doctor salary figure is ultimately the one that matches the specific specialty and employment situation being evaluated.
