Employers buy survey data; most physicians guess. That asymmetry costs real money at every contract. Here is what the bands look like in 2026 and how to negotiate against them.
Physician compensation is one of the most information-asymmetric markets in professional life. Health systems subscribe to MGMA and Sullivan Cotter benchmarks and know the 25th/50th/75th percentile for your exact role before you walk in. Most physicians, meanwhile, negotiate from a number a co-fellow mentioned once. Closing that gap is worth more per hour than anything else you will do this year.
Across major 2025-26 compensation surveys, typical total-compensation bands for full-time US attendings look roughly like this:
| Specialty | Typical band |
|---|---|
| Neurosurgery | $700k - $900k+ |
| Orthopedic surgery | $600k - $800k |
| Interventional cardiology / GI | $550k - $700k |
| Radiology / Anesthesiology | $450k - $600k |
| Dermatology | $450k - $550k |
| Emergency medicine / Hospitalist | $300k - $400k |
| Family / Internal medicine | $270k - $330k |
| Pediatrics | $240k - $290k |
Treat these as orientation, not gospel - the spread within a specialty (by region, setting, and production) is wider than the spread between adjacent specialties. The full breakdown by state and experience lives in our 2026 Physician Salary Report.
Three forces bend the numbers. Geography pays inverse to desirability: the Upper Midwest and rural South routinely bid 20-40% over coastal metros for the same specialty, because they have to. Setting changes the contract shape: academic salaries run lower with better benefits and 457(b) access; private-equity-owned groups post high headline pay with production strings attached. Averages blend production models: a "median" that mixes 1.0-FTE no-call dermatologists with q3-call surgeons describes nobody.
Base salary, wRVU rate and threshold, call pay, sign-on bonus, relocation, student-loan repayment, retirement match, CME fund, and malpractice including tail coverage. Two of these - the wRVU conversion factor and the tail - are where employed physicians lose the most money quietly. A $2 difference in the wRVU rate on a 6,000-wRVU year is $12,000 annually, every year; an unfunded tail is a five-figure exit tax. Both are negotiable; neither is in the recruiter's opening email.
Timing matters as much as technique. Leverage peaks before you sign - never after - and returns at renewal, when documented production numbers change the conversation from asking to invoicing. Finishing training? Start benchmarking six months before contracts circulate: your first contract sets the baseline that every later one anchors to.
Benchmark your exact offer
Compare your compensation against 95,000+ physician salary data points by specialty, state, experience, and setting - then build your counter with the Negotiation Kit.
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