Doctor salary by specialty and state

How much do doctors make?

Doctors make a median of $271,090 a year in non-surgical specialties and $369,540 in surgery, with means of $277,260 and $364,360.^[oews_api] The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which pools both groups, puts the median for physicians and surgeons at $275,930.^[ooh_phys] Across 804,140 physician and surgeon jobs, the lowest-paid 10% earn under $75,760 and the top 10% of surgeons over $640,680.

These are the first BLS physician figures that are not cut off at $239,200. Through the May 2024 estimates, any percentile above that line was printed only as “$239,200 or more”, which is why older articles say doctors earn “at least $239,200”. From May 2025 BLS publishes specific values for most of them.^[oews_faq] The survey covers employees only: physicians who own their practice are not included.^[oews_tec]

Doctor salary by specialty

Pediatric surgeons have the highest median pay at $559,030, followed by cardiologists ($496,010) and radiologists ($420,860); general pediatricians are lowest at $210,040.^[oews_api] The gap between the best- and worst-paid specialty medians is $348,990 a year. Specialty pages: anesthesiologist salary, surgeon salary, dermatologist salary.

Wage and salary employees only; self-employed physicians are not surveyed.

Physician “all other” is the biggest single group, 342,720 jobs. It holds every physician specialty BLS does not list on its own; O*NET's examples include hospitalists, allergists and immunologists, urologists and physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians.^{[oews_api][onet_physoth]}

Highest-paid doctors

The highest-paid doctors in the May 2025 data are pediatric surgeons ($559,030), cardiologists ($496,010), radiologists ($420,860), surgeons in other specialties ($414,010), anesthesiologists ($391,490), by median.^[oews_api] Sorting by mean instead changes the order a little, because a few specialties have long low tails. All of the top five are hospital- or procedure-based; the office-based primary-care specialties sit at the bottom of the table. Neurosurgeons cannot be ranked from BLS data at all, because they have no occupation code of their own; neurosurgeon salary sets out what the official and survey figures do show.^[onet_def]

Doctor salary by state

For family medicine, the largest specialty BLS reports by name, Rhode Island has the highest average pay at $365,960, followed by Montana ($337,850) and Oklahoma ($329,940); Alabama is lowest at $169,720.^{[oews_api][onet_fm]} Pick any other specialty and state in the calculator above; the anesthesiologist and surgeon pages carry their own state tables.

Jobs: BLS OEWS employment estimate, May 2025. “—”: not released.

Download all family medicine physician wages as CSV (nation, 51 states and every published metro area: mean, 10th–90th percentiles, jobs)

Resident salary and years of training

A first-year resident (PGY-1) earned a mean stipend of $68,166 on July 1, 2025, rising by $2,300 to $4,300 with each training year.^{[aamc_stipend]} Training length is what separates the specialties: residency runs from three years in family medicine and pediatrics to five in radiology and general surgery, and six for cardiology including fellowship.^{[acgme_fm][acgme_rad][acgme_surg][acgme_cardio]} The radiology route, with its board exams and fees, is laid out step by step on how to become a radiologist.

Unweighted institutional figures; 345 institutions reported PGY-1 stipends. Source: AAMC Survey of Resident/Fellow Stipends and Benefits, 2025 report.

Residency years include any required first clinical year; cardiology includes the internal medicine residency before the 3-year fellowship.

Training is mostly paid for with loans: the median medical graduate of 2025 owed $215,000.^{[aamc_afford]} Work out your own balance and payment on how much medical school costs.

Doctor take-home pay

A single physician at the $271,090 median keeps about $197,028 a year ($16,419 a month) after 2026 federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, before state tax.^[irs][ssa] That is 73% of gross. The top federal bracket reached is 32%, the 6.2% Social Security tax stops at $184,500 of wages, and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax applies above $200,000.

Doctors compared with PAs, optometrists and chiropractors

Physician assistants earn a median of $135,880, optometrists $136,570, podiatrists $160,300 and chiropractors $79,200, all with shorter training than a physician.^[oews_api] See physician assistant salary, optometrist salary and chiropractor salary, or line any two careers up below.