MedicalRecruiting.com publishes a continuously updated medical salary comparison covering physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants across every clinical specialty and every U.S. region. Our compensation data combines our own active placement data — the actual offers our medical recruiters negotiated and closed in the most recent twelve months — with the major industry compensation surveys (MGMA, AMGA, Sullivan Cotter, Doximity, AANP, AAPA) and government data sources (BLS, CMS, HRSA). The result is a salary comparison that reflects what providers are actually being paid right now, not survey snapshots from twelve to eighteen months ago. The full comparison is free to use.
Our primary data source is the actual placement data from MedicalRecruiting.com searches — every accepted offer for every physician, NP, and PA we have placed in the most recent rolling twelve-month window, broken down by specialty, geography, employment model, productivity structure, and seniority. This is the most current data available because it reflects offers signed and started in the past year, not offers reported in surveys conducted earlier.
We supplement our placement data with the major industry compensation surveys — MGMA Provider Compensation Survey, AMGA Medical Group Compensation Survey, Sullivan Cotter Provider Compensation Survey, Doximity Physician Compensation Report, AANP National NP Sample Survey, and the AAPA Salary Report — to extend coverage into specialties and regions where our placement volume is lower. Government sources (BLS Occupational Employment Statistics, CMS RVU files, HRSA shortage area data) are used to triangulate regional cost-of-practice and shortage adjustments.
All compensation figures are presented as total cash compensation (base + productivity + bonus) for full-time clinical roles. Sign-on, relocation, loan repayment, retention bonuses, and benefit values are reported separately so they can be compared apples-to-apples. We update major specialty figures quarterly and the full comparison is refreshed annually with the new survey-cycle data.
High-level total cash compensation ranges (full-time, U.S. national) for each provider type:
Median total cash compensation by specialty (full-time, U.S. national, most recent twelve months):
Geography is the single largest driver of compensation variation. Rural and HRSA-designated shortage areas typically pay 10% to 25% above national medians for primary care and behavioral health roles, while saturated urban academic markets typically pay 5% to 15% below national medians for the same specialties. Cost-of-living adjustments rarely fully explain the variation — the demand-side dynamics in rural family medicine, hospitalist coverage in critical access hospitals, and psychiatry in shortage states usually dominate.
Employment type matters enormously. Hospital-employed roles typically offer higher base salary, lower productivity ceiling, comprehensive benefits, and signing bonuses with payback clauses. Private-practice partnership-track roles typically offer lower employed compensation in years one and two but substantially higher long-term economics through partnership distributions, ancillary income, and equity. Locum tenens daily rates typically work out to 20% to 50% above an equivalent W-2 hourly rate but exclude benefits, retirement contributions, and tail malpractice.
Experience and seniority drive compensation predictably within each specialty: years one to three of post-training practice typically pay 70% to 85% of the specialty median; years four to ten typically pay 95% to 110%; senior partners and physician leaders in private practice routinely earn 130% to 200% of median through partnership economics and ancillary income.
Sign-on bonuses, relocation packages, and student loan repayment have grown substantially as employer competition has intensified. Sign-on bonuses of $25,000 to $100,000 are common for hard-to-fill specialty roles; loan repayment of $50,000 to $250,000 over a three-to-five-year service commitment is increasingly standard for primary care and behavioral health roles in shortage areas.
Call schedule materially affects total compensation in inpatient and procedural specialties. Heavy call rotations (q3, q4) typically command 15% to 30% premium over light call (q7+) within the same specialty and market. No-call or low-call positions trade compensation for lifestyle and are increasingly competitive for established subspecialty physicians.
Our salary comparison is anchored to MGMA, AMGA, and Sullivan Cotter survey data and adjusted with our own current placement data. Where our placement data shows the market has moved meaningfully since the most recent survey field period — common in fast-moving specialties like emergency medicine, hospital medicine, dermatology PA, and PMHNP — our published figures will reflect the more current placement reality. The comparison is free, so providers and employers can use it without needing a paid MGMA license.
Yes. Regional variation routinely runs 20% to 35% above or below the national median for the same specialty, driven primarily by demand intensity, payor mix, and competition for available providers — not strictly by cost-of-living. Rural and shortage-area markets typically pay above-median for primary care, behavioral health, and hospital medicine. Saturated coastal academic markets often pay below-median for the same specialties. Procedural specialties (cardiology, GI, orthopedics, dermatology) show wider regional variation driven by payor mix and ancillary opportunity.
Use the median range for your specialty, geography, and employment model as the anchor for negotiation conversations. Identify the top-quartile figure as your stretch ask if you have leverage (multiple offers, scarce subspecialty, hard-to-fill geography). Always negotiate total comp — base, productivity structure, sign-on, relocation, loan repayment, retention bonus, CME, and call premium — rather than just base salary, because employers often have more flexibility on the components than on the base. A medical recruiter on your specialty desk can walk you through current employer-by-employer offer benchmarks for your specific role.
Locum tenens daily rates typically work out to 20% to 50% above an equivalent permanent W-2 hourly rate — but the comparison is rarely apples-to-apples. Locum rates exclude employer-paid benefits (typically 25% to 35% of base salary), retirement match, paid time off, CME budget, and tail malpractice coverage. After grossing up benefits and accounting for self-employment tax treatment, the real economic gap is usually narrower than the headline rate difference, though locum work typically does yield modestly higher net income with greater schedule flexibility.
Telehealth compensation has converged substantially with in-person rates over the past several years and is now broadly competitive across psychiatry, primary care, and chronic-care specialties. Direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms typically pay competitive base or per-visit rates that work out to within 5% to 15% of equivalent in-person compensation, with the trade-off being higher patient volume expectations, asynchronous workflow demands, and platform-specific productivity metrics. Hybrid in-person and virtual roles increasingly bundle the same total-comp package as fully in-person equivalents.