50+ stats on physician compensation

Here are more than 50 key stats on physician compensation:

There stats were pulled from Medscape's "Physician Compensation Report 2022," Merritt Hawkins and AMN Healthcare's 2022 "Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives,"  Physicians Thrive's 2022 Physician Compensation Report, MGMA's "Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Group" and Medscape's "International Physician Compensation Report."

The 10 highest-earning average annual physician specialties by compensation:

1. Plastic surgery: $576,000
2. Orthopedics and orthopedic surgery: $557,000
3. Cardiology: $490,000
4. Otolaryngology: $469,000
5. Urology: $461,000
6. Gastroenterology: $453,000
7. Dermatology: $438,000
8. Radiology: $437,000
9. Ophthalmology: $417,000
10. Oncology: $411,000

The starting salary for the most in-demand providers:

1. Dermatology: $421,000
2. Emergency medicine: $349,000
3. Family medicine: $231,000
4. Hospitalist: $264,000
5. Internal medicine: $257,000
6. Nurse practitioner: $123,000
7. OB-GYN: $335,000
8. Pediatrics: $240,000
9. Physician assistant: $120,000
10. Psychiatry: $263,000
11. Radiology: $436,000
12. Urgent care: $219,000

Average signing bonuses for the five most-recruited providers:

• Nurse practitioner: $9,677
• Family medicine: $35,577
• Radiology: $32,163
• Psychiatry: $24,615
• OB-GYN: $22,841

Physicians in the Midwest earned the highest salaries. Physicians in the East earn the least.

On average, female physicians earned 25 percent less than male physicians in the same specialty.

Primary care physicians earned an average of $242,000 in 2021, down from $243,000 in 2020.

Specialists earned an average of $344,000 in 2021, down from $346,000 in 2020.

Fifty-five percent of specialists earned an incentive bonus.

Fifty-nine percent of primary care physicians earned an incentive bonus.

Physician compensation at physician-owned practices since 2006 has mostly met or exceeded that of hospital-owned practices. 

Physician pay decreased for these four specialties:

1. Cardiology (Interventional): 13.7 percent decrease — from $611,000 to $527,000
2. Hematology: 5.2 percent decrease — from $426,000 to $404,000
3. Radiology: 2.1 percent decrease — from $465,000 to $455,000
4. Pediatrics: 1.7 percent decrease — $236,000 to $232,000

Physician pay increased for these eight specialties:

1. OB-GYN: 10.3 percent increase — from $291,000 to $321,000
2. Anesthesiology: 9 percent increase — from $367,000 to $400,000
3. Cardiology (Non-invasive): 8.5 percent increase — from $446,000 to $484,000
4. Neurology: 7.3 percent increase — from $332,000 to $356,000
5. Gastroenterology: 4.6 percent increase — $453,000 to $474,000
6. Orthopedic surgery: 3.5 percent increase — from $546,000 to $565,000
7. Urology: 2.6 percent increase — from $497,000 to $510,000
8. Internal medicine: .4 percent increase — from $255,000 to $256,000

On average, physicians in the U.S. earned the most ($316,000) per year, followed by Germany ($183,000) and the U.K. ($138,000). Physicians in Mexico earned the least at $12,000.

In terms of net worth, U.S. physicians are significantly ahead of their counterparts in other countries. The average net worth of physicians in the U.S. is $1.7 million.

Fifty-nine percent of U.S. physicians surveyed said that they felt fairly compensated, the highest among countries surveyed. In Germany, 43 percent of physicians feel they are fairly compensated, compared to just 14 percent in Spain.

On average, primary care physicians in the U.S. earn $242,000 annually, the highest of any country surveyed. Second was Germany ($200,000) and last was Mexico ($70,000).