Myriad details of a physician’s job will depend heavily upon their chosen specialty—among them the compensation they can expect to demand. And newly released data shows wide variance in 2026 when it comes to base salary, signing bonuses and year-over-year increases for physicians.
In addition to the sheer numbers, physicians in some specialties see real differences in relative value unit (RVU) targets, their call burden, ramp-up expectations and other contract terms that can dramatically affect their overall compensation—as well as their job satisfaction.
The report on physician salary data (email required) released by Resolve, a contract review and negotiation firm specializing in physician employment, draws from the thousands of physician contracts the firm handles to highlight the specialty-specific trends and figures that are crucial for those assessing employment contracts for their first physician jobs, especially.
“Base salary and bonuses in the past year have stayed fairly stable for most physicians, but leverage has shifted from headline salary to contract design, productivity thresholds, flexibility and legal protections,” the report says, while cautioning that “physicians saw offers that looked competitive on paper but required higher output, tighter benchmarks or faster ramp‑ups to fully realize total compensation.”
The data in the report comes from more than 4,000 physician contracts reviewed by Resolve in all 50 states in the nation and in 116 specialties and subspecialties, and it outlines must-know trends nationally, as well as across regions, practice settings and more.
The tips in the report for residents, fellows and early-career physicians include advice on the intricacies of compensation trends, particularly how to view changes in salary by specialty.
“While overall salary growth stalled or in some cases even slowed, specialty‑specific demand, call burden and productivity requirements continued to reshape compensation structures, often shifting risk and upside onto physicians,” the report notes.
The AMA has teamed up with Resolve to provide AMA members an exclusive discount on services that include custom contract review. Resolve offers personalized legal expertise to help physicians secure the best employment contract terms, no matter where they are in their careers. Ready to access your AMA-member Resolve discount? Learn more now.
The big picture shows modest bumps
The national average base salary for physicians in the Resolve report came in at $387,000 for the year, with growth slowing compared to previous years. Read more about overall trends in physician base salaries.
The report says that more than 98% of the contracts reviewed for the year were for employed positions, and 95% were for full-time roles, up 2 percentage points over the previous year.
Median base salary for men in the report came in at $400,000 and for women at $320,000. The gap in compensation, however, was higher in some specialties. Of the physician specialties in which at least 20 contracts for men and 20 contracts for women were reviewed, some larger differences were seen in specialties such as dermatology, where men earned a median of $50,000 more than did women. Hospitalists who were women, though, earned a median of $16,000 a year more in base salary than did men.
Differences by specialty
The Resolve report noted trends by specialty, including that proceduralist physicians including surgeons often commanded the highest base salaries in 2026.
The median base salaries for physicians in the following specialties, which represented the top 10 highest for the contracts reviewed by Resolve, were:
- Neurosurgery—$790,000.
- Cardiovascular surgery—$750,000.
- Cardiothoracic surgery—$720,000.
- Orthopaedic surgery, trauma—$700,000.
- Orthopaedic surgery, general—$650,000.
- Dermatology, Mohs surgery—$641,000.
- Pediatric neurosurgery—$575,000.
- Cardiology, invasive-interventional—$568,000.
- Orthopaedic surgery, hand—$563,000.
- Orthopaedic surgery, hip and joint—$562,000.
Log in to your AMA account and read on to discover:
- How physician compensation shifted in 2026.
- Which physician specialties are seeing the biggest gains.
- Where compensation is rising or falling fastest.
- Why base salary alone can be misleading.
- The vital importance of negotiating physician employment contracts.
