These Are the Best Paid Doctors in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 31, 11:30AM EDT

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These Are the Best Paid Doctors in America — © ronstik / Getty Images

Physicians are among the highest-paid professionals in America. Over the past three years, the job has often become more difficult and a potentially difficult financial risk. Thousands of doctors have been part of the frontline effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Many others have patients who have become ill from the virus.

Doctors in some specialties did not have any patients at all when the pandemic was at its worst. Most elective procedures were canceled or rescheduled. Thousands of doctors went out of business or retired.

According to 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, eight of the nine highest-paid professions in the United States are ones that require a medical degree. Some practice highly specialized medicine, including psychiatrists and surgeons. Others are family practitioners.

For its recent Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2022: Incomes Gain, Pay Gaps Remain, the medical information provider surveyed over 13,000 doctors across 29 specialties. After the income hit from the pandemic, there was a positive improvement for many doctors last year. James Taylor, chief operating officer of AMN Healthcare’s leadership solutions division, commented: “Compensation for most physicians is trending back up as demand for physicians accelerates.”
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Details by specialty were reported based on earnings after taxes and deductible business expenses.

Plastic surgeons were the highest-paid doctors by far, with an average annual income of $567,000. Orthopedic surgeons were second at $557,000, followed by cardiologists at $490,000. The lowest-paid profession was “public health and preventive medicine” at $243,000.

This is the average pay for doctors in 29 medical specialties:

Plastic Surgery ($576K)
Orthopedics ($557K)
Cardiology ($490K)
Otolaryngology ($469K)
Urology ($461K)
Gastroenterology ($453K)
Dermatology ($438K)
Radiology ($437K)
Ophthalmology ($417K)
Oncology ($411K)
Anesthesiology ($405K)
Surgery, General ($402K)
Emergency Medicine ($373K)
Critical Care ($369K)
Pulmonary Medicine ($353K)
Ob/Gyn ($336K)
Pathology ($334K)
Nephrology ($329K)
Physical Medicine/Rehabilitation ($322K)
Neurology ($301K)
Allergy/Immunology ($298K)
Rheumatology ($289K)
Psychiatry ($287K)
Internal Medicine ($264K)
Infectious Diseases ($260K)
Diabetes/Endocrinology ($257K)
Family Medicine ($255K)
Pediatrics ($244K)
Public Health/Preventative Medicine ($243K)

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.