Learn exactly how much doctors make including the differences in salary by specialty, location, race, and gender as well as if it's better to be self-employed

A doctor wearing a white coat and holding a piggy bank

Introduction

If you’re interested in becoming a doctor or you’re already on the road to entering the field of medicine, you’ve probably given a lot of thought to what your life in medicine will look like. Obviously, your number one focus is on healing people and learning about the human body.

But it’s also fair to begin to plan your life on practical terms. You probably want to know how much money you’ll earn in your future profession, especially given how expensive it is to become a doctor in the first place. Between application fees for medical school and residency, medical school tuition, travel expenses for interviews, and living on a resident’s salary for several years, the costs can be substantial. The average medical student debt upon graduation is currently $250,995.

You probably have some of the following questions: What’s the average salary for doctors nationwide? Does salary vary state to state? Between specialties? Are you more likely to be more competitively paid if you work for certain types of institutions? Are there benefits to opting for certain lower-paying specialties? What jobs give you forgiveness for medical school loans? Are there wage gaps that correspond with gender and race that you should be aware of—and push back against—as you enter the job market?

We’ve taken a deep dive into the financial nitty-gritty of becoming a doctor. Here are the answers to these questions.

Doctors’ salaries differ by specialty

Overall, the average physician salary is $277,000 annually for primary care physicians and $394,000 for specialists, according to the 2024 Medscape Physician Compensation Report. (Note: Access to this report is free, but you will have to sign in to view it.) Not only are these impressive average salaries, they are also significant increases from salary averages reported by Medscape in 2015. Medscape notes that across the board, physician compensation continues to rise. Their 2018 report showed the average physician earning $299,000 while only six years later, that has risen to $363,000.

What’s relatively consistent year to year are the highest-earning and lowest-earning specialties. In the past few years of Medscape’s reports, cardiology, plastic surgery, and orthopedics have remained at the top of the list, landing among the five highest-earning specialties. By contrast, family medicine, pediatrics, and diabetes and endocrinology have hovered near the bottom five specialties.

This year, orthopedics topped the list of highest-earning specialties, with an average annual salary of $558,000. The lowest-earning specialty was diabetics and endocrinology, with an average salary of $256,000. In contrast, the average American salary across all professions hovers around $59,384 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How do this year’s lowest-earning specialty physicians feel about their financial situation? 36 percent of diabetics and endocrinology physicians surveyed reported that they felt fairly compensated. By contrast, 44 percent of surveyed orthopedists—the highest-paying specialty—reported feeling fairly compensated.

In addition, it’s worth noting that most specialties allow doctors to earn drastically more as they get older. Doctors between ages 40 and 69 make significantly more money than their younger-than-40 counterparts. This difference is less pronounced in primary care, either because specialists receive greater annual salary increases or because recent efforts to make primary care salaries more competitive is closing the gap between older and younger members of the field—but likely both.

Doctors’ salaries differ by state

Where you work also influences what you’ll earn. There are many prestigious medical centers and opportunities in the Northeast, from Sloan Cancer Center to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, but the states in which physicians earn the highest salaries are actually in the South and Midwest.

In 2023, the state with the highest average salary for physicians was Wisconsin ($397,000). Other states included in the list of top-ten highest annual salaries were Indiana, Georgia, Connecticut, Missouri, New Jersey, South Carolina, Florida, California, and Michigan.

In a major metropolitan area like Boston—which ranks among the lowest-paying cities for doctors in the nation—there’s a high concentration of medical schools and academic medical centers. Doctors working in research positions are often paid less; high-prestige centers attract a large workforce. Many future physicians also attend medical school in places like Boston, and then stay—leading to a surplus of doctors. This might not be the case in Georgia or Indiana. Essentially, the lack of physicians in rural areas (and competition) tends to push up compensation.

It pays to be a self-employed physician—but there are drawbacks

According to the 2024 Medscape report, physicians who were self-employed—meaning they owned their own practice or were a partner in a private practice—made an average of $391,000 a year, while physicians employed by hospitals, universities, or clinics made an average of $353,000. However, Medscape notes this disparity has been narrowing.

It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that if you own a practice by yourself or as part of a group—or if you’re a partner in a practice—a significant portion, between a third and half, of your revenue goes into overhead—just keeping the lights on, buying equipment, paying salaries, etc.

In 2022, less than half of practicing physicians—46.7 percent—owned their own practice, according to the American Medical Association. The number of physicians employed directly by hospitals, or in practices owned at least partially by hospitals or health systems, was slightly lower at 40.9 percent.

Overall, independent physicians who have their own practice trade financial risk for higher revenue. By contrast, working at a hospital provides security, but physicians are subject to the hospital’s chosen compensation models.

What about less common job types, such as Locum Tenens

One type of physician that is less often discussed is locum tenens or simply a ‘locum doctor.’ This type of doctor fills a temporary need with a hospital and often moves around to different assignments. The assignments may last from a few months to a few years. Typically, they are filling a position because another physician has gone on leave or a hospital might be expecting patient demand to increase in the near future.

Many practicing physicians use locum assignments merely to supplement their income but others prefer to live the locum life full-time.

An array of factors go into determining a locum doctor’s salary such as location, the skillset required, the type of specialty, how many patients a facility expects, and even the amount of shifts involved. This makes really nailing down an average locum doctor’s salary tricky as the range can vary quite widely.

However, ZipRecruiter currently states the national average for a locum doctor is $212,253 in the United States. Locums also tend to make a higher hourly wage than their regular counterparts with ZipRecruiter noting $148 for a locum and $72 for a physician. However, keep in mind these numbers are across all specialties and locations so there may be significant deviation in actual pay.

While some locations may advertise a higher salary, they may also be in areas with a higher cost of living. However, if you’re working with a locum tenens placement agency they may pay for accommodation for the duration of the assignment. That said, locum doctors are usually independent contractors meaning that taxes aren’t taken out of their paychecks. You’ll have to put money aside to take care of that on your own. On the other hand, taking on locum assignments may be a good way to increase your salary by accepting temporary positions in rural locations where the overall compensation is higher without having to permanently relocate there.

Doctors’ salaries differ by race and gender

If you’re part of a group that’s been historically underrepresented in medicine—for example, if you’re a woman or person of color—it’s worth being aware of the pay disparities that persist in medical fields.

In 2023, white physicians earned more than physicians of other races and ethnicities—on average, $369,000. Survey respondents identifying as Asian American earned $362,000 annually; those identifying as Hispanic/Latino earned $349,000 annually; and those identifying as Black or African American earned $332,000 annually.

Going back a little further, a 2016 survey conducted by the USC Census American Community Survey found that the annual median income of a Black male doctor was $188,230, compared with $253,042 for a white male doctor. Meanwhile, white female doctors’ adjusted median annual income was $163,234 compared to $152,784 for Black female doctors. In short, the difference in median income between a white male doctor and a Black female doctor was $100,000—a significant and disturbing disparity.

According to the 2024 Medscape report, women physicians earn less than male physicians across the board, regardless of race and ethnicity. In part, this is because women often go into the lowest-paying specialties such as pediatrics and family medicine (OB-GYN is the exception, with that higher-earning field being 62 percent female).

Even taking into account the fact that women disproportionately select lower-paying fields, there’s gender pay disparity even within the specialties. Male specialists earned $435,000; women specialists, $333,000. Male PCPs earned $295,000, while their female counterparts earned $253,000. In other words, male specialists earned 30 percent more than female specialists, and male PCPs earned 16 percent more than female PCPs. This disparity is slightly lower than it was in the past among primary care physicians.

In short, these gaps are maddening, but they’re important to know about as you advocate for yourself in your future job.

Loan forgiveness programs for doctors

If you’re graduating medical school with loans, you may consider entering a high-paying specialty in order to pay them off more quickly. But if you’re interested in public service, there are a number of government-sponsored loan forgiveness programs that help future doctors pay off their loans without having to give up the chance to work with underserved populations.

If you’re interested in practicing primary care in a high-need area of the country, you might enroll in the NHSC Students to Service Loan Repayment Program, which pays students up to $120,000 in their final year of medical school in exchange for their post-residency commitment to work in an area underserved by health professionals.

The Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program awards up to $50,000 in loan forgiveness to students who work two years post-residency in American Indian and Alaskan Native communities.

Also available are funded medical study through the Air Force, Army, and Navy if you wish to become a military doctor.

Finally, for a list of opportunities specific to primary care—some of the lower paying fields—check out the website of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

There are also different types of federal and private loans. For federal student loan borrowers, there are income-based repayment programs available. To qualify, you must demonstrate “partial financial hardship”—most residents qualify. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, this repayment program “caps’ loan payments at 15 percent of your discretionary income, and the monthly payment is adjusted annually.” Each year the repayment adjusts based on your family size and income, and after 20 years of payment all remaining debt is forgiven (though the forgiven amount is taxable).

Overall, remember that many programs can support you financially so you can practice the kind of medicine that most interests you. You shouldn’t pursue a high-paying specialty for financial reasons only or stay out of family medicine because you’re worried about earnings.

Final thoughts

The bottom line is: no matter what specialty you choose, you’ll make a good living as a doctor. Pay does vary, however, based on the many factors described above. It’s important to go in with eyes open as you choose what to specialize in, where to work, and what kind of institution you want to work for. It’s also important to be aware of inequality in your chosen field, and be sure to advocate for yourself during salary negotiations.

The most important thing is to stay focused on your interests. Know that whatever path you choose—the specialties or primary care, Boston or Alabama, private practice or hospital employment—there are options available to make your life financially stable, and often lucrative. Maybe you take part in a loan forgiveness program in the years out of med school so that you can pursue family medicine without debt. Or maybe you pursue your dream of working at a research hospital, but choose to practice in a part of the country with a lower cost of living.

Whatever you choose, you’ll be healing people—and you have a variety of ways to pursue that goal.

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How Much Do Doctors Make? (2024)