Doctor Salaries by Specialty
Of the 3,803 doctor postings we read in October 2026, 87% name a specialty or a kind of post in the title. Radiology, cardiology and anesthesiology postings advertised the highest middles.
From our US Job Postings Report: October 2026, which ranks every role. These are advertised ranges, which can differ from what people end up earning.
On one month of postings
17 specialties have at least 20 postings stating pay from 5 or more employers, and each employer counts once, so no hospital group can carry a figure. With samples this small, read a specialty's figure as a guide, not a precise rate.
Salary by specialty, highest middle first
Show as a table
| Specialty | Bottom | Middle | Top | Postings that state pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radiology | $500k | $565k | $635k | 31 |
| Cardiology | $460k | $550k | $623k | 35 |
| Anesthesiology | $520k | $535k | $585k | 29 |
| Gastroenterology | $493k | $501k | $508k | 20 |
| Surgery (general and other) | $400k | $456k | $537k | 264 |
| Dermatology | $413k | $455k | $530k | 27 |
| Emergency medicine | $356k | $419k | $450k | 68 |
| Oncology and hematology | $375k | $413k | $451k | 22 |
| Obstetrics and gynecology | $300k | $364k | $374k | 54 |
| Neurology | $290k | $357k | $375k | 24 |
| Urgent care | $314k | $356k | $387k | 21 |
| Hospital medicine | $269k | $317k | $329k | 38 |
| Psychiatry | $262k | $302k | $340k | 151 |
| Internal medicine | $225k | $288k | $314k | 80 |
| Family medicine and primary care | $248k | $274k | $312k | 154 |
| Physical medicine and rehabilitation | $229k | $272k | $302k | 31 |
| Pediatrics | $220k | $250k | $302k | 38 |
Each bar runs from the bottom of the advertised range to its top, with the middle marked, of postings that state pay: each employer's own median first, then the median across employers, so a group posting dozens of jobs counts once. The specialty is read from the job title; posts that name none, residents and fellows, academic posts, medical exams and non-clinical roles are in the table, not the chart.
Every specialty and kind of post
| Not named in the title | 502 | 195 | 267 | 105 | $225k to $315k | $274k | Shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surgery (general and other) | 341 | 49 | 264 | 18 | $400k to $537k | $456k | Shown |
| Family medicine and primary care | 321 | 96 | 154 | 47 | $248k to $312k | $274k | Shown |
| Psychiatry | 266 | 66 | 151 | 32 | $262k to $340k | $302k | Shown |
| Non-clinical (industry, review, administration) | 231 | 58 | 92 | 41 | $246k to $350k | $296k | Shown |
| Academic (professor, faculty) | 157 | 34 | 9 | 4 | $258k to $283k | $270k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Internal medicine | 139 | 32 | 80 | 15 | $225k to $314k | $288k | Shown |
| Hospital medicine | 138 | 50 | 38 | 17 | $269k to $329k | $317k | Shown |
| Pediatrics | 132 | 53 | 38 | 21 | $220k to $302k | $250k | Shown |
| Obstetrics and gynecology | 131 | 40 | 54 | 22 | $300k to $374k | $364k | Shown |
| Emergency medicine | 114 | 35 | 68 | 16 | $356k to $450k | $419k | Shown |
| Cardiology | 107 | 38 | 35 | 20 | $460k to $623k | $550k | Shown |
| Orthopedic surgery | 99 | 31 | 19 | 11 | $425k to $622k | $622k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Radiology | 93 | 37 | 31 | 19 | $500k to $635k | $565k | Shown |
| Neurology | 92 | 29 | 24 | 13 | $290k to $375k | $357k | Shown |
| Oncology and hematology | 80 | 38 | 22 | 15 | $375k to $451k | $413k | Shown |
| Dermatology | 77 | 19 | 27 | 14 | $413k to $530k | $455k | Shown |
| Anesthesiology | 69 | 27 | 29 | 15 | $520k to $585k | $535k | Shown |
| Medical exams (IME, disability) | 63 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | Under 20 stating pay |
| Gastroenterology | 61 | 23 | 20 | 14 | $493k to $508k | $501k | Shown |
| Physical medicine and rehabilitation | 59 | 21 | 31 | 8 | $229k to $302k | $272k | Shown |
| Wound care | 50 | 5 | 45 | 3 | $200k to $500k | $375k | Under 5 employers |
| Critical care and pulmonology | 42 | 23 | 11 | 9 | $332k to $445k | $421k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Endocrinology | 42 | 17 | 13 | 6 | $236k to $325k | $287k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Pathology | 40 | 24 | 13 | 10 | $300k to $350k | $338k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Otolaryngology (ENT) | 34 | 15 | 4 | 4 | $405k to $430k | $418k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Urgent care | 33 | 13 | 21 | 7 | $314k to $387k | $356k | Shown |
| Pain medicine | 32 | 12 | 12 | 6 | $383k to $429k | $394k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Urology | 32 | 14 | 10 | 6 | $338k to $500k | $450k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Rheumatology | 31 | 13 | 7 | 5 | $265k to $300k | $278k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Residents and fellows | 27 | 21 | 5 | 4 | $75k to $75k | $75k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Geriatrics | 26 | 10 | 18 | 6 | $213k to $278k | $252k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Palliative care | 25 | 12 | 4 | 3 | $232k to $260k | $250k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Infectious disease | 24 | 8 | 16 | 3 | $200k to $350k | $275k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Neurosurgery | 22 | 14 | 5 | 4 | $625k to $775k | $713k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Ophthalmology | 22 | 11 | 2 | 2 | $297k to $360k | $329k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Podiatry | 21 | 14 | 13 | 8 | $182k to $248k | $215k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Nephrology | 11 | 10 | 2 | 2 | $259k to $356k | $307k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Occupational medicine | 10 | 8 | 3 | 2 | $240k to $290k | $265k | Under 20 stating pay |
| Sleep medicine | 7 | 6 | 1 | 1 | $281k to $320k | $301k | Under 20 stating pay |
Specialties are read from job titles by fixed rules, first match wins, so a cardiac anesthesiologist counts once, under anesthesiology. On a hand check of 200 random titles on 2026-11-04, about 96% of those given a specialty got the right one; the misses found were fixed in the rules, and a fresh sample should confirm it.
US postings only, from the career sites of employers we crawl, first seen October 1 to 31, 2026. This is not all US jobs: we read employers with an online career site, which leans toward tech and toward mid-size and large companies, and we keep adding employers. So we report pay and shares, and a posting count is only a sample size. Role, level, work mode and education are read from each posting by our AI and were checked against the postings on a sample of 1,049: role 96% right, level 94%, work mode 85%, education 98%, years 99%. Skills are read the same way and have had a lighter check: a second model, on 108 postings, found 96% named in the posting and 87% really skills. Visa sponsorship is read the same way and was checked against the postings: 129 of 150 that our AI counted as sponsoring say so, and most of the others only accept people who already hold a visa. Of 3,350 postings it did not count that mention a visa, 3 say they sponsor. So the visa shares run a little high.