The highest-paid physicians are most commonly surgical specialists and those treating primarily adult patients, according to Doximity's "Physician Compensation Report" for 2024, published May 23.
The report found that the lowest-paid specialty physicians are typically primary care providers or pediatric specialists.
Doximity analyzed 33,000 physician compensation surveys completed between January and December 2023, which contained data from about 150,000 compensation surveys of physicians practicing at least 40 hours a week that were conducted over the last five years.
Here are 40 specialties ranked by average annual salary in 2023:
- Neurosurgery: $763,908
- Thoracic surgery: $720,634
- Orthopedic surgery: $654,815
- Plastic surgery: $619,812
- Oral and maxillofacial surgery: $603,623
- Radiation oncology: $569,170
- Cardiology: $565,485
- Vascular surgery: $556,070
- Radiology: $531,983
- Urology: $529,140
- Gastroenterology: $514,208
- Otolaryngology: $502,543
- Anesthesiology: $494,522
- Dermatology: $493,659
- Oncology: $479,754
- Ophthalmology: $468,581
- General surgery: $464,071
- Colon and rectal surgery: $455,282
- Pulmonology: $410,905
- Emergency medicine: $398,990
- Occupational medicine: $317,610
- Infectious disease: $314,626
- Internal medicine: $312,526
- Pediatric emergency medicine: $309,124
- Rheumatology: $305,502
- Family medicine: $300,813
- Endocrinology: $291,481
- Geriatrics: $289,201
- Pediatric gastroenterology: $286,307
- Preventive medicine: $282,011
- Child neurology: $279,790
- Pediatric pulmonology: $276,480
- Medicine/pediatrics: $273,472
- Pediatrics: $259,579
- Pediatric hematology and oncology: $251,483
- Medical genetics: $244,517
- Pediatric infectious disease: $236,235
- Pediatric rheumatology: $233,491
- Pediatric nephrology: $227,450
- Pediatric endocrinology: $217,875