According to Medscape’s 2018 Physician Compensation Report, doctor salaries have been seeing a steady increase over the past few years. The biggest gains are seen in plastic surgery, psychiatry and physical medicine & rehabilitation.
How has your specialty fared? Just as supply-and-demand is calling for more doctors, it’s also favoring certain specialties over others.
In this article, we compare doctor salaries by specialty in 2017 vs. 2018.
Doctor Average Salary Trends and Changes
The mean salary of an physician in the United States across all specialties is $299,000/year according to a Medscape Report.
In the table below, we compare the average 2017 salary by specialty and how that might change in 2018 based on industry trends.
| Specialty | Average 2017 Salary¹ | Average % Change² | Estimated 2018 Salary³ |
| Allergy & Immunology | $272,000 | +6% | $288,320 |
| Anesthesiology | $386,000 | +6% | $409,160 |
| Cardiology | $423,000 | +3% | $435,690 |
| Critical Care | $354,000 | +9% | $385,860 |
| Dermatology | $392,000 | +2% | $399,840 |
| Emergency Medicine | $350,000 | +3% | $360,500 |
| Endocrinology | $212,000 | -4% | $203,520 |
| Family Medicine | $219,000 | +5% | $229,950 |
| Gastroenterology | $408,000 | +4% | $424,320 |
| General Surgery | $322,000 | -9% | $293,020 |
| Infectious Disease | $231,000 | +1% | $233,310 |
| Internal Medicine | $230,000 | +2% | $234,600 |
| Nephrology | $294,000 | +5% | $308,700 |
| Neurology | $244,000 | -2% | $239,120 |
| Obstetrics and Gynecology | $300,000 | +5% | $315,000 |
| Oncology | $363,000 | +10% | $399,300 |
| Ophthalmology | $357,000 | +3% | $367,710 |
| Orthopedics | $497,000 | +2% | $506,940 |
| Otolaryngology (ENT) | $383,000 | -4% | $367,680 |
| Pathology | $286,000 | -2% | $280,280 |
| Pediatrics | $212,000 | +5% | $222,600 |
| Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation | $269,000 | +13% | $303,970 |
| Plastic Surgery | $501,000 | +14% | $571,140 |
| Psychiatry | $273,000 | +16% | $316,680 |
| Pulmonology | $321,000 | +3% | $330,630 |
| Radiology | $401,000 | +1% | $405,010 |
| Rheumatology | $257,000 | +9% | $280,130 |
| Urology | $373,000 | -7% | $346,890 |
1. Data from Medscape Physician Compensation Report
2. Data from Medscape Physician Compensation Report
3. Calculation estimation based on data from previous columns.
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