Physician compensation up 3% in 2025: A look at the details

New data on physician compensation found that overall pay for doctors rose 3% in 2025, but several specialties actually saw their compensation flatline or shrink during that period.

The new data come from Medscape’s annual survey of physician compensation, which were released earlier this month. Overall pay for all physicians in 2025 came in at $386,000, up from $374,000 in 2024.

Here’s a more detailed look at physician compensation numbers from Medscape’s most recent survey.

Physician compensation in dollars

Medscape, which surveyed nearly 6,000 physicians in 29 specialties, found that PCPs reported an average pay of $298,000. Specialists, by comparison, reported earning an average of $417,000. (Medscape numbers for physician compensation include base salary and incentive bonuses plus other income sources like profit-sharing contributions, as reported by full-time doctors).

While the survey didn’t report pay for hospitalists, specialties like internal medicine reported an average compensation of $307,000, while family medicine reported an average pay of $288,000. Pediatrics appeared at the bottom of Medscape’s list of specialties with an average annual pay of $266,000.

Eight specialties reported earning more than $500,000

• Orthopedics/orthopedic surgery: $611,000
• Cardiology: $575,000
• Radiology: $571,000
• Plastic surgery: $554,000
• Anesthesiology: $543,000
• Urology: $535,000
• Gastroenterology: $530,000
• Otolaryngology: $508,000.

Five lowest-paid specialties in Medscape’s survey

• Diabetes/endocrinology: $284,000
• Rheumatology: $284,000
• Infectious diseases: $282,000
• Public health/preventive medicine: $277,000
• Pediatrics: $266,000

Doctor pay in percentages

In terms of percentages, cardiologists topped the Medscape survey with a 10% jump in pay in 2025. Several specialties reported a drop in physician compensation from 2024-2025.

Internists reported a 5% hike in their pay from 2024-2025. Family physicians reported a 2% increase, while pediatricians reported no pay gains in 2025.

Seven specialties with the biggest percentage increase in 2025

• Cardiology: +10%
• Ophthalmology: +9%
• Radiology: +9%
• Emergency medicine: +8%
• Anesthesiology: +8%
• Orthopedics/orthopedic surgery: +8%
• Urology: +6%

Specialties that saw a drop in 2025 pay

• Physical medicine/rehabilitation: -1%
• Nephrology: -1%
• Dermatology: -1
• Oncology/hematology: -2%
• Pulmonary medicine: -2%
• Allergy/immunology: -3%
• Psychiatry: -3%

Gender gap in physician compensation

Medscape data show that the well-documented gender gap in physician compensation is alive and kicking.

Pay for male physicians in 2025 averaged $429,000, for example, while female physicians reported an average of $327,000. That $102,000 gap came to a difference of almost 32%.

Compared to last year’s data report from Medscape, the gender gap has grown slightly. In 2024, male physicians earned $91,000 than their female counterparts for a 29% difference in overall physician compensation.

What’s next for doctor pay?

Looking ahead, about 40% of physicians said they expected to still be making the same amount of money at the end of the year, and about the same number said they expected a raise. Seventeen percent said they expect their pay to be lower compared to 2024 levels.

That may explain why about 40% of physicians told Medscape that they supplement their pay with outside income. That number is up from 38% of physicians who said they took outside work in 2024.

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