Average physician pay rose about 3% between 2024 and 2025, from $374,000 to $386,000—outpacing the 2.7% U.S. core inflation rate that rounded out the year, a new annual report from Medscape found.
Medscape’s 2026 Physician Compensation Report surveyed 5,916 physicians across more than 29 specialties. Total compensation numbers reflect base salary and incentive bonuses, plus other income sources like profit-sharing contributions, as reported by full-time physicians.
Matthew Wells, Ph.D, a senior director at AGMA Consulting, called 2025 a “return to normalization” for physician compensation in the report and expects “consistency with increases” in the future. Driving factors cited by Wells include physician productivity in seeing more patients and improved technology-driven efficiency.
Fifty-three percent of all physicians report feeling fairly compensated, as opposed to last year’s report in which only 48% reported fair compensation—what the report notes was the “most dispirited response” it had seen in a decade of posing the question.
Simultaneously, however, 61% of respondents report that the broader industry is generally underpaid across the country. “Compared to the rest of the world, we are overpaid,” said one anonymous physician respondent quoted in the report. “But the cost of living and also burnout are much higher here in the U.S.”
Similar to last year’s report, 42% percent of respondents said their total compensation remained the same from 2024 to 2025. Seventeen percent of physicians were expecting a pay decrease.
Chad Stutelberg, national managing director of healthcare compensation and rewards for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, said in the report that many physicians expecting pay cuts are likely in private practice and dealing with Medicare reimbursement rates.
Cardiology (10%), radiology (9%), and anesthesiology (8%) ranked in the top five specialties for compensation growth—as well as for the highest average total pay.
Pediatrics and rheumatology compensation remained the same. Compensation decreased across seven specialties, with a 1% loss reported in physical medicine and rehabilitation, nephrology and dermatology; a 2% loss for oncology, hematology and pulmonary medicine; and a 3% loss in psychiatry and allergy and immunology.
The survey also found eight specialties now claim average compensation rates of over half a million: orthopedics and orthopedic surgery ($611,000), cardiology ($575,000), radiology ($571,000), plastic surgery ($554,000), anesthesiology ($543,000), urology ($535,000), gastroenterology ($530,000) and otolaryngology ($508,000).
Average pay among male physicians in 2025 was $429,000, compared to $327,000 for female physicians. The 31% gap is the largest in the survey’s history, up from 29% in 2023. Male primary care physicians and specialists also earned more than their female counterparts.
The annual survey also noted physicians identifying as white reported 6.1% higher compensation on average ($391,000) than Asian American ($383,000), Latino ($361,000) and Black ($342,000) physicians. Average incentive bonuses were also higher for white physicians.