Orthopedic surgeons are offered the highest average starting salary ($633,000) among physicians, according to AMN Healthcare's "2023 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives," released Aug. 14.
Pediatricians ($233,000) are offered the lowest average starting salary among physicians tracked in the report.
Average starting salary offers made to physician specialists were generally up year over year, highlighting strong demand for specialists, according to the report. Starting salaries were up 22 percent for dermatologists, 19 percent for psychiatrists and 12 percent for orthopedic surgeons.
On the other hand, average starting salary offers in primary care were either flat or down year over year, AMN Healthcare found. Starting salaries were up 2 percent for family physicians, up less than 1 percent for pediatricians and unchanged for internal medicine physicians.
Editor's note: The report is based on a representative sample of the 2,676 permanent physician and advanced practitioner search engagements AMN Healthcare had ongoing or was engaged to conduct between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023.