Plastic surgery is the highest-paying physician specialty, according to Medscape's 2022 Physician Compensation Report.
For the report, Medscape collected responses from 13,064 physicians across more than 29 specialties. The data was collected between Oct. 5, 2021, and Jan. 19, 2022. For employed physicians, the figures include salary, bonus and profit-sharing contributions. For self-employed physicians, the figures include earnings after taxes and deductible business expenses before income tax. Only full-time salaries were included in the results. Read more about the methodology here.
Although many physicians saw income decline individually, compensation was up overall. This is the first time in 11 years that Medscape's report has shown that all specialties saw an increase in income. Since 2015, physician compensation has climbed 29 percent overall, 30 percent for specialists and 33 percent for primary care physicians, according to the report.
Below are the five top-earning specialties, according to the report.
1. Plastic surgery: $576,000 (10 percent increase)
2. Orthopedics: $557,000 (9 percent increase)
3. Cardiology: $490,000 (7 percent increase)
4. Otolaryngology: $469,000 (13 percent increase)
5. Urology: $461,000 (8 percent increase)