The Highest-Paid Doctors in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 15, 11:30AM EDT

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The Highest-Paid Doctors in America — © gorodenkoff / iStock via Getty Images

Doctors have been considered some of the highest-paid people in America, and rightly so. Federal government studies put them at the top of this totem poll, which they share only with attorneys. However, the range of what doctors make varies, both by location and specialty. Doctors in one specialty make almost $800,000 a year on average.
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According to the 2023 Physician Compensation Report, average annual physician compensation is about $400,000. One large difference is where doctors work. The highest-paid doctors are those who work in Charlotte, N.C., at $461,000. The metro where doctors make the least is Washington, D.C., at $342,000. (These states have the fewest doctors per person.)
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Broken out by compensation, neurosurgeons make the most money, an average of $788,000. Thoracic surgeons are second at $707,000. Surgeons take up most of the top positions ranked by pay.
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The lowest-paid doctors are pediatric endocrinologists, who average $218,000. They are followed by pediatric infectious disease doctors.
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These are the highest and lowest-paid specialties in America:

Neurosurgery ($788,313)
Thoracic Surgery ($706,775)
Orthopaedic Surgery ($624,043)
Plastic Surgery ($571,373)
Vascular Surgery ($557,632)
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery ($556,642)
Radiation Oncology ($547,026)
Cardiology ($544,201)
Urology ($505,745)
Radiology ($503,564)
Gastroenterology ($496,667)
Otolaryngology (ENT) ($488,536)
Dermatology ($468,509)
Anesthesiology ($462,506)
General Surgery ($451,489)
Ophthalmology ($449,315)
Oncology ($447,312)
Colon & Rectal Surgery ($445,685)
Pulmonology ($400,650)
Nuclear Medicine ($392,196)
Rheumatology ($299,790)
Internal Medicine ($293,894)
Occupational Medicine ($292,814)
Infectious Disease ($288,607)
Pediatric Emergency Medicine ($287,635)
Pediatric Gastroenterology ($282,853)
Endocrinology ($276,548)
Geriatrics ($275,704)
Preventive Medicine ($275,068)
Child Neurology ($273,167)
Family Medicine ($273,040)
Medicine/Pediatrics ($270,396)
Pediatric Pulmonology ($263,742)
Medical Genetics ($244,107)
Pediatrics ($242,832)
Pediatric Nephrology ($238,208)
Pediatric Hematology & Oncology ($237,005)
Pediatric Rheumatology ($226,186)
Pediatric Infectious Disease ($221,126)
Pediatric Endocrinology ($218,266)

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.