Physician Starting Pay Hits $400,000 A Year

By Bruce Japsen,
Senior Contributor. 
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Bruce Japsen writes about healthcare business and policy.

The average starting salary for physicians has eclipsed $400,000 on average with orthopedic surgeons "at the high end" at $576,000 and pediatricians on the "low end" of the pay scale at $258,000, according to an AMN Healthcare report.

The average starting salary for physicians has eclipsed $400,000 on average with orthopedic surgeons "at the high end" at $576,000 and pediatricians on the "low end" of the pay scale at $258,000, according to a new analysis.

AMN Healthcare’s 2025 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives shows starting salaries rising across all medical disciplines amid an ongoing physician shortage, related health professional burnout that is fueling a staffing crisis that started during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trends fueling the shortage also include an aging population of baby boomers with increasing healthcare needs, AMN’s physician compensation analysts say.

AMN Healthcare’s annual review tracks starting salaries and other incentives offered by hospitals and medical groups to physicians, nurse practitioners and other advanced practice professionals. This year’s report is based on a sample of more than 1,400 of the search firm’s engagements from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, and includes data on starting salaries and other incentives offered by the company’s clients to physicians and advanced practice professionals across the U.S.

“Demand for specialists is particularly strong and is being driven by the rapid growth of the nation’s senior citizen population,” AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions president Leah Grant said. “While demand is growing, many specialists are in short supply, resulting in high starting salary offers.”

It’s the latest of the annual compensation reports showing starting pay rising along with general healthcare inflation after a period during the Covid-19 pandemic when some reports showed pay rates slowing.

For example, the American Medical Group Association’s (AMGA) 2025 Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey shows a 4.9% compensation increase “across the entire dataset” on average for all physicians.

AMGA’s report showed median primary care physician compensation at nearly $330,000 for such doctors that includes family practice, internal medicine and general pediatrics specialties. AMGA data showed the top three medical specialties of cardiology, gastroenterology and hematology/medical oncology rising on average 4.9% to $516,444. Meanwhile, the top three surgical specialties of general surgery, orthopedic surgery and OB/GYN rose 3.3% to $476,355.

And the Medical Group Management Association report this year showed median primary care physician compensation rose 3.17% to $322,343 in 2024 compared to $312,427 in 2023. That compensation growth was behind that of surgical specialist compensation, which rose 5.57% to $584,998 from $554,108. Nonsurgical specialist compensation similarly rose 4.74% to $453,515 in 2024, compared to $432,983.

After orthopedic surgeons, AMN said gastroenterologists are offered the next highest average starting salary at $552,000, followed by urologists at $521,000; radiologists at $500,000; and hematologists/oncologists at $490,000.

Primary care physicians, who are offered "significantly lower starting salaries than specialists" are receiving between $250,000 and $300,000 on average depending on the specialty. "Family medicine physicians are offered an average starting salary of $275,000, less than half that of orthopedic surgeons, while internal medicine physicians are offered an average of $290,000, and pediatricians $258,000," AMN said in its report.

The AMN report showed nurse practitioner salaries on the rise with the average starting salary offer for nurse practitioners is $180,000, a 9.6% increase from $164,000 in 2024. "NPs are in rapidly growing demand as physician shortages persist," Grant said. "Without them, access to healthcare would be even more problematic, particularly in rural and other underserved areas."

Physician Starting Pay Hits $400,000 A Year

The average starting salary for physicians in the U.S. has exceeded $400,000, with orthopedic surgeons at $576,000 and pediatricians at $258,000. This follows a report by AMN Healthcare and the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), which attributes rising salaries to physician shortages, an aging population, and increased demand for specialists. Nurse practitioners also saw a 9.6% salary increase to $180,000.