Physicians — if you're working or thinking about working in Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington, D.C., you may want to rethink that decision. Data from professional medical networking site Doximity shows physicians working in those cities make average salaries significantly lower than the rest of the country.
Instead, physicians may be able to negotiate higher salaries where the demand is greatest — which Doximity says is in Denver, Louisville, Ky., Spokane, Wash., Las Vegas and Colorado Springs, Colo.
However, to pay off those student loans soonest, physicians should move to the Midwest, according to Doximity. Compared to Washington, D.C. — where physicians make 17 percent less than the national average across all specialties — those who practice in Minnesota and Indiana make 13 percent more than the national average across all specialties.
Here are the highest paying states for physicians, according to data from Doximity's Career Navigator, an online resource which includes income information from more than 35,000 physicians across the country.
Primary care physicians
Includes family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN
1. Arkansas — $330,000
2. South Dakota — $305,000
3. Iowa — $305,000
Specialists
1. North Dakota — $472,000
2. Wyoming — $433,000
3. Idaho — $429,000
Here are the lowest paying states for physicians.
Primary care physicians
49. Delaware — $218,000|
50. West Virginia — $205,000
51. District of Columbia — $192,000
Specialists
49. Vermont — $299,000
50. District of Columbia — $298,000
51. Rhode Island — $291,000
Unfortunately, despite that female physicians make up 34 percent of the national workforce, Doximity data shows these average salaries may look much different for women than men. The average gender pay gap for physicians is 21 percent, according to Doximity. The gap is largest in ophthalmology — where males earn 36 percent more than their female counterparts — and smallest in anesthesiology, where the gap is 12 percent or about $43,000 annually.
Physicians can see a personalized compensation map here.
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