An Ignoble Experiment: How Much Money Do Doctors Make a Year? Salaries Rise (Slightly) But Not Enough to Satisfy Them

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By Josh Katzowitz, WCI Content Director

After a year in which the average salary for physicians actually dropped, the latest survey numbers show that doctors earned higher incomes in 2023. But still, the majority of physicians believe they're not being paid enough for how much and how hard they work.

According to the newly released 2024 Medscape Physician Compensation Report, US physician's total compensation rose about 3% in 2023, a solid increase from the 2.4% drop that occurred the year before. Primary care physicians' compensation rose 4%, according to the Medscape survey (which took information from more than 7,000 doctors), while those in the 29+ specialties that were analyzed rose 3%. Still, as Medscape points out, that trails the approximate 4% average increase received in 2023 by non-unionized US employees.

Despite the COVID pandemic and all the uncertainty it brought, doctors managed to increase their average salaries in 2020 and 2021. The 2023 Doximity Physician Compensation Report showed that the average physician's salary dropped in 2022, thanks to Medicare payment cuts. Doximity also noted that, when adjusted for inflation, Medicare physician payments had declined 22% from 2001-2021.

Wrote Doximity:

"These challenges are driving many medical professionals to reassess their careers; explore opportunities for greater autonomy and work-life balance; and in certain cases, even consider new career pursuits outside of medicine altogether."

Further hurting physician income and doctors' purchasing power in 2022 was the fact that inflation reached a high of 9.1% that summer. That meant a doctor's net worth also probably decreased, particularly since stocks and bonds both had terrible years in 2022. But inflation stabilized in 2023, and the S&P 500 posted a 24% gain.

Still, the physicians who were surveyed by Medscape weren't necessarily thrilled by their salaries.

Medscape reported that 61% of doctors believe that most physicians are underpaid, while 34% believe they're paid just right. The other 5% think most physicians are paid too much. To compare those numbers with Americans who were surveyed in 2021, only 11% thought doctors were underpaid. When the Medscape survey-takers were asked if they thought they themselves were underpaid, only 49% said yes.

As one survey-taker said:

"Do I feel I am paid well? Yes, in comparison to other Americans. However, I gave the time, money, and sacrifice to do it."

In a Doximity article released in August 2022, a survey of more than 1,000 doctors found that 55% of them are either delaying retirement (about 40% of those who were surveyed) or reducing their expenses (about 15%) because of the economic environment at the time. According to Doximity, "Older physicians, who are closer to the traditional retirement age, are much more likely to delay retirement than younger physicians. But a substantial percentage of those in their 30s and 40s are also planning to delay retirement."

According to Doximity's data, the gender pay gap slightly narrowed to 26% in 2022 (down from 28% in 2021), as male doctors earn about $110,000 more than their female colleagues per year (it was a $122,000 difference in 2021). That disparity also could have led to more cases of physician burnout.

"While there appears to be slight movement in the right direction, physician pay parity continues to be a critical area in need of improvement," Doximity wrote. "This pay gap may be contributing to an even higher burnout rate among women physicians, with nearly 92% of women physicians surveyed reporting overwork, compared to 83% of men."

The Medscape data from 2023, though, shows the pay gap narrowing again, as male doctors averaged $400,000 and female doctors averaged $310,000, a $90,000 difference.

Average Doctor Salary

In reality, the average doctor's salary of $363,000 isn't all that useful to know.

As an example: according to the latest Doximity report, the average pediatric infectious disease doctor makes $221,126 per year. The average neurosurgeon makes $788,213. Between those two, the average is $504,670. Which, when comparing those two specialties, means absolutely nothing. Plus, consider that, according to the 2024 Medscape survey, the average primary care physician makes $277,000 vs. a specialist who makes $394,000. That's also a pretty big difference. Here's a quick look at general compensation from Medscape's most recent survey in 2024.

Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2024

It's almost certainly more useful to know the average in a doctor's specialty as opposed to the salary of a physician in general.

Resolve rData — Resolve's proprietary data from thousands of contract submissions. Explore on the Resolve rData homepage.

Intraspecialty Pay vs. Interspecialty Pay

As Dr. Jim Dahle has repeatedly pointed out, "One of the things I have noticed that no one ever seems to talk about is that intraspecialty pay variation is higher than interspecialty pay variation."

As Jim noted in a previous post, here's a chart from 2015 that shows the results of an emergency medicine salary survey. The salaries might be outdated, but the general point remains.

Salary Survey

He wrote:

"Look at the 10th percentile for employees—$213,000. Now, look at the 90th percentile for partners—$510,000. Difference? $297,000. GREATER than the difference between the average pediatrician and the average plastic surgeon!

The ability to increase pay and increase it substantially solves a ton of financial problems that real doctors run into and email me about all the time. It's way easier to pay off your student loans or mortgage on twice the income. Even after-tax, it's much easier to become financially independent or have a dignified retirement or send your kids to the college of their choice when you can double your income."

How Much Do Doctors Make an Hour?

Physician income information is relatively easy to find, but work hours information is notoriously difficult to find. The only information that combined physician work hours with their income is from a survey in JAMA published in 2003 (which obviously uses even older data).

The below physician salary per hour combines the JAMA data with Medscape's 2024 survey, and it's adjusted for the decreased work hours in each specialty. This chart (possibly erroneously) assumes that all physicians work 48 weeks a year. Where Medscape didn't have survey data, other less reliable sources were used. Those figures have an asterisk next to them in the table.

Doctor Salary by Specialty

One interesting thing about salary surveys is that they are garbage in/garbage out. Average specialty pay varies significantly between surveys. Before we focus on the Doximity numbers, which you'll find in the paragraphs below, compare and contrast those numbers with those from the 2024 Medscape survey.

Medscape says infectious disease doctors make $261,000. Doximity says $289,000. That's nearly a 10% difference. Medscape says orthopedists make $558,000. Doximity says $624,000, 10.6% more. What is a new grad or even an established doc who wants to negotiate a contract supposed to do with that much variation between averages (besides use the Doximity survey when negotiating)? And what if you're in one of those "specialties in the middle" like OB/GYN or psychiatry or emergency medicine or neurology that Doximity didn't even report on despite how common they are? Or if you're a neurosurgeon or CT surgeon, and Medscape doesn't report on your specialty? Are you stuck paying to get MGMA data (or hiring a contract management firm)? Is that data even any better than these surveys?

For even further exploration, here are several individual specialties that Medscape looked at in 2023, how much money those doctors make, and whether they think their income is fair:

Highest-Paid Doctors

Now, for the Doximity survey numbers that tell us the highest-paid and the lowest-paid doctors. When it comes to the top-earning specialties, those in surgical and procedural specialties dominated the list, and doctors who earn the least mostly practice in primary care and pediatrics.

So, how much do doctors make? Here's what Doximity found for 2023.

highest paid doctors

Lowest-Paid Doctors

And here are the specialties that earn the lowest salaries.

lowest paid doctors

Keep in mind that these charts are of the top-20 highest and lowest average doctor salaries. For specialties like psychiatry, adult emergency medicine, and allergy and immunology, those average salaries likely range from about $311,000 to about $384,000.

As for which specialty's salaries are increasing and decreasing the most, here's a chart put together by Medscape in its 2024 survey.

Despite its drop in popularity in the 2023 class of fourth-year medical students matching into residency, emergency medicine docs continue to make more money, as do PM&R, neurology, and dermatology.

More information here:

How Much Do Surgeons Make?

Doctor Salary by State

One way to get closer to financial independence is to practice geographic arbitrage, where a doctor lives in a lower-cost-of-living area and draws a higher salary where the need for physicians might be greater than those in the big cities on the coasts. The following chart from Medscape in 2023 seems to show that geoarbitrage is not a myth.

Doctors, at least going back to the 2020 survey (this chart was unavailable in Doximity's latest survey), make the highest salaries in states like Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Missouri. All are so-called flyover states, and none are in the top-15 among the states with the biggest populations.

Doximity 2020 Physician Compensation Report

doctor salary by state

Medscape 2023 Compensation Report

states for highest physician salary

Obviously, a doctor living in New York City is going to have a much higher cost of living than a physician who's residing in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. The fact that a doctor in the Badger State probably brings home more money than a physician in the Big Apple is also another point in favor of practicing geographic arbitrage.

Doctor Salaries by Employment Setting

The setting in which a doctor practices also heavily affects how much they earn. As you can see below, the difference between practicing in a single-specialty group vs. working for an urgent care center can be nearly $175,000 a year in 2022.

average doctor salaries

Single Specialty Group: $438,959 (a 0.7% decrease from 2021)
Multi-specialty Group: $421,159 (a 0.7% decrease from 2021)
Solo Practice: $428,112 (a 3% increase from 2021)
Hospital: $398,954 (a 0.1% decrease from 2021)
Industry/Pharmaceutical: $392,534 (a 0.8% decrease from 2021)
Health System/IDN/ACO: $400,207 (a 1.4% increase from 2021)
Health Maintenance Organization: $387,393 (a 3.4% increase from 2021)
Academic: $347,013 (a 0.9% decrease from 2021)
Urgent Care Center/Chain: $264,727 (a 1.0% decrease from 2021)
Government: $269,189 (a 1.8% increase from 2021)

Need tips for how to increase pay in your specific specialty? Jim has some ideas.

There's plenty more to read in the entire Doximity report—which also includes information on physician compensation in different metro areas, cities with the fastest-growing doctor salaries, and the impact of economic factors on career plans. For comparison, here's Medscape's Physician Compensation 2024 Report.

What do you think? Are you surprised by any of these numbers? Have you found a way to increase your pay inside your specialty? Comment below!

[This updated post was originally published in 2022.]

The post How Much Money Do Doctors Make a Year? Salaries Rise (Slightly) But Not Enough to Satisfy Them appeared first on The White Coat Investor - Investing & Personal Finance for Doctors.

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