For physicians · residents · fellows
Physician compensation benchmarks by specialty
Percentiles, not just averages — p25 to p90 for 20 specialties, from published public sources.
Every value carries its source. No paywalled survey data resold.
Then the part no salary site does: see where your actual offer sits.
Salary averages hide the question that matters: is your offer at the 30th percentile or the 70th? The table below gives the published percentile spread by specialty. Averages from community salary sites tend to run above survey medians — self-reported samples skew toward higher earners — so percentile placement is the safer negotiating anchor.
A benchmark only becomes leverage when it's attached to your own numbers. Upload your offer and the decode places your base on this curve, checks your wRVU rate against the specialty median, and flags the clauses that modify what you actually keep.
| Specialty | p25 | Median | p75 | p90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anesthesiology | $400,200 | $460,000 | $519,800 | $597,770 |
| Cardiology | $408,900 | $470,000 | $531,100 | $610,765 |
| Dermatology | $416,035 | $478,201 | $540,367 | $621,422 |
| Emergency Medicine | $340,615 | $391,511 | $442,407 | $508,769 |
| Family Medicine | $239,250 | $275,000 | $310,750 | $357,362 |
| Gastroenterology | $480,240 | $552,000 | $623,760 | $717,324 |
| General Surgery | $402,190 | $462,287 | $522,384 | $600,742 |
| Hospitalist (Internal Medicine) | $242,730 | $279,000 | $315,270 | $362,560 |
| Internal Medicine (outpatient/general) | $252,300 | $290,000 | $327,700 | $376,855 |
| Nephrology | $315,995 | $363,213 | $410,431 | $471,995 |
| Neurology | $305,161 | $350,760 | $396,359 | $455,813 |
| Neurosurgery | $651,752 | $749,140 | $846,528 | $973,507 |
| Obstetrics & Gynecology | $338,430 | $389,000 | $439,570 | $505,505 |
| Oncology / Hematology | $426,300 | $490,000 | $553,700 | $636,755 |
| Orthopedic Surgery | $501,120 | $576,000 | $650,880 | $748,512 |
| Pediatrics (general) | $224,460 | $258,000 | $291,540 | $335,271 |
| Psychiatry | $274,050 | $315,000 | $355,950 | $409,342 |
| Pulmonology / Critical Care | $357,005 | $410,350 | $463,695 | $533,250 |
| Radiology (diagnostic) | $435,000 | $500,000 | $565,000 | $649,750 |
| Urology | $453,270 | $521,000 | $588,730 | $677,040 |
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Decode my contract — freeThe $99 full report adds clause-by-clause analysis, counter-proposal language, and a ready-to-send negotiation email — a fraction of the $500–$2,000 a typical attorney review costs, and a good way to arrive prepared if you hire one.
How this comparison was built
- • joboffer.ink is built with care by children of physicians — Harvard- and MIT-trained engineers.
- • Every number traces to a named public source — 26 registered sources, 106 lineage-linked values across 20 specialties.
- • Covenant and tail-coverage norms are cross-checked against a corpus of 65 physician employment lawsuits (2021–2026) built from court records.
- • No licensed survey data is resold here: everything cited is public, with links, and the full method is documented on the methodology page.
Harvard and MIT do not endorse or have any affiliation with joboffer.ink; the reference describes the founders' training.
Full methodology & sources →Frequently asked questions
What is a good salary for my specialty?
One at or above the published median for your specialty and region, in a contract whose other terms don't claw it back. A median base with an unlocked wRVU formula, physician-paid tail coverage, or a broad non-compete can net less than a p40 base with clean terms — which is why we benchmark the whole contract, not one number.
Where does this benchmark data come from?
Published, publicly citable sources — recruiting-firm salary guides, public survey releases, and government data — each linked inline. We deliberately do not resell licensed survey data (MGMA, SullivanCotter); the methodology page documents every source and its confidence rating.
How is this different from community salary sites?
Community sites aggregate self-reported salaries — useful for market color, but unaudited and average-centric. We publish percentile ranges from named public sources and then read your actual contract against them, including the 25 terms that aren't salary.
Keep reading
Information and preparation, not legal advice. Benchmarks cite public sources inline; verify every number against your own documents.