Salaries
What physicians earn, by specialty and state.
Pay pages built on the federal Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 release (published May 15, 2026): national employment and pay for each physician occupation, a state table and the top metro areas, with the survey’s limits beside the numbers.
The physician occupations.
The federal survey groups physicians into the occupations below. Each specialty opens its pay page: the national figures and their spread, every state, and the metro areas at the top.
Verified BLS May 2025 national file
National employment and pay, May 2025
| Specialty | BLS occupation | Employment | Mean annual wage | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anesthesiology | Anesthesiologists (29-1211) | 38,760 | $360,570 | $391,490 |
| Cardiology | Cardiologists (29-1212) | 17,290 | $454,940 | $496,010 |
| Dermatology | Dermatologists (29-1213) | 11,370 | $323,530 | $328,730 |
| Emergency medicine | Emergency Medicine Physicians (29-1214) | 32,880 | $317,480 | $335,550 |
| Family medicine | Family Medicine Physicians (29-1215) | 107,510 | $255,820 | $244,180 |
| General surgery | Surgeons, All Other (29-1249) | 25,140 | $373,930 | $414,010 |
| Internal medicine | General Internal Medicine Physicians (29-1216) | 67,150 | $267,200 | $256,560 |
| Neurology | Neurologists (29-1217) | 10,590 | $267,630 | $248,560 |
| Obstetrics and gynecology | Obstetricians and Gynecologists (29-1218) | 21,260 | $279,040 | $292,910 |
| Ophthalmology | Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric (29-1241) | 8,950 | $304,650 | $300,080 |
| Orthopedic surgery | Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric (29-1242) | 14,100 | $373,570 | $358,550 |
| Pathology | Physicians, Pathologists (29-1222) | 11,110 | $285,420 | $312,400 |
| Pediatric surgery | Pediatric Surgeons (29-1243) | 1,190 | $502,050 | $559,030 |
| Pediatrics | Pediatricians, General (29-1221) | 39,390 | $212,110 | $210,040 |
| Physicians, all other | Physicians, All Other (29-1229) | 342,720 | $262,040 | $265,930 |
| Psychiatry | Psychiatrists (29-1223) | 27,980 | $269,940 | $281,870 |
| Radiology | Radiologists (29-1224) | 26,770 | $381,530 | $420,860 |
What the survey measures, and what it does not.
The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey asks employers what they pay the people on their payroll, by occupation and location. It is the broadest public source of physician pay by state and metro area, and it has limits worth knowing before a number goes into an offer letter. In BLS’s words:
- An employer survey
- BLS asks employers, not physicians. The survey measures employment and wages for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments, so every figure here describes physicians on a payroll. (BLS technical notes)
- No self-employed physicians
- The survey does not count the self-employed or owners and partners in unincorporated firms, so physicians in their own unincorporated practice are left out. Salaried officers and staff of incorporated practices are counted. (BLS technical notes)
- What counts as a wage
- Wages are straight-time gross pay. The base rate, incentive pay and production bonuses are in; overtime, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses and the employer’s cost of benefits are not. (BLS technical notes)
- A ceiling on some wages
- Where a cell shows #, BLS gives no figure, only that the wage is equal to or greater than $115.00 per hour or $239,200 per year. This page prints that floor; the wage itself may be well above it. (BLS national file notes)
- Three years of responses
- The May 2025 figures combine six semiannual panels of survey responses collected over three years, from November 2022 to May 2025. Wages reported in the earlier panels are adjusted to the May 2025 reference date. (BLS technical notes)
- Rounded counts
- Employment is rounded to the nearest ten, and BLS leaves out a state or metro area, or marks a cell, where it publishes no estimate. (BLS national file notes)
Sources
- May 2025 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Excel file (oesm25nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read
- May 2025 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Excel file (oesm25st.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read
- May 2025 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Excel file (oesm25ma.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read
- Technical notes for May 2025 OEWS estimates, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read
- 2018 Standard Occupational Classification: major groups and occupation definitions, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read
- Copyright information: BLS material is in the public domain, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics read