Recruiting an anesthesiologist.

What does an anesthesiologist earn?

Ranked among the states and the District of Columbia where BLS publishes both the mean wage and the employment figure; 31 of the 51 are left out because BLS withholds or top-codes a figure or has no row. The anesthesiology salary page has every state, the metro areas and BLS’s caveats.

Anesthesiologists average $360,570 (BLS, May 2025 release) a year in the BLS figures, with a median of $391,490 (BLS, May 2025 release) and roughly 38,760 (BLS, May 2025 release) on payrolls. Many states show BLS markers rather than figures for this occupation, so the state rankings below rest on fewer states than most specialties.

Offers combine a salary or a share of the group's billing with a call schedule, and the call schedule is often what candidates negotiate hardest. Partnership tracks still exist in physician-owned groups; management companies and hospitals usually offer employment with higher starting pay and no ownership.

Where do anesthesiologists look for jobs?

Where new hires come from

New hires come from residency or after a fellowship

Who employs them

Physician-owned anesthesia groups that contract with hospitals and surgery centers, national anesthesia management companies, academic departments and hospital-employed groups.

Who you compete with for candidates

Management companies that can offer many locations and quick starts, and ambulatory surgery centers that offer daytime schedules with little call.

Residents decide in the final year, and those taking a fellowship in cardiac, pediatric, obstetric or regional anesthesia, or in pain medicine, decide a year later. Groups that need those skills recruit the fellows directly.

Anesthesia also has a job site of its own, where groups and hospitals post without a fee. Experienced anesthesiologists also hear about openings through surgeons and colleagues at the facilities where they already work.

• GasWork Free, with paid options

  Free for anesthesiologists, CRNAs, anesthesia groups and hospitals

  An anesthesia-only job site where groups and hospitals post free and recruiting agencies pay, so a posting there reaches anesthesia clinicians and costs nothing to try.

Every board’s listing, with its posting lengths and how CV access is sold, is in the job board directory; what a physician job posting costs compares them.

The locum agency directory has each agency’s states, malpractice coverage and physician pay where it states them.

What does an open anesthesia position cost?

What the calculator has for anesthesiology

• Revenue one physician brings in: no published figure, so you supply the annual revenue one physician in the specialty brings your organization
• Locum pay: $300 to $425 an hour (estimate, Locumstory (CHG Healthcare), 2025)
• First-year pay: $360,570 a year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025)
• Contingency agency fee: 20 to 30% of first-year pay (estimate, MedStaff Nationwide, 2026)

The calculator has no revenue figure per anesthesiologist, because the revenue in question belongs mostly to the hospital or surgery center: each room that cannot run is surgical cases moved or lost. Enter the facility revenue your contract protects if you want that line counted.

Locum anesthesiologists are common and expensive, at $300 to $425 (estimate, Locumstory (CHG Healthcare), 2025) an hour in physician pay before the agency's margin. A hospital that has to fund that cover often raises its stipend to the group, which is where vacancy costs land in many anesthesia contracts.

Open the calculator with anesthesiology chosen

Which recruiting channels work for anesthesiology?

Anesthesia recruiting splits into two problems: hiring permanent anesthesiologists, and keeping rooms covered while you do. The channels below handle one or the other, and a good plan uses both.

Questions to ask

• How many rooms a day are delayed or cancelled for lack of anesthesia coverage?
• What care team ratio would the new anesthesiologist supervise?
• Who funds locum cover under your contract with the hospital?
• Does your contract or the hospital's bylaws limit where a departing anesthesiologist can practice?

Which rules bite anesthesiology recruiting?

Hospital money flows to anesthesia groups as stipends, and the payments have to stay clear of the referral laws even though anesthesiologists do not choose which patients come to them.

Every federal rule this site cites, grouped by what a practice or recruiter is doing, is on the federal rules page. For the contract itself (pay models, tail coverage, restrictive covenants), read the physician employment contract, clause by clause. These notes describe the rules and cite them; they are not legal advice for a particular offer or contract.