Physicians in West North Central states such as Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota reported the highest earning compensation last year, while physicians in Mid-Atlantic states such as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania reported the lowest, according to Medscape's "2024 Physician Compensation Report," released April 12.
The report — which is based on survey responses from 7,000 physicians across more than 29 specialties between Oct. 2 and Jan. 16. — points to an analysis published in 2023 by The Washington Post in discussing the regional findings.
For the analysis, the newspaper examined more than 10 million tax records from the Internal Revenue Service to identify the average annual income in 2017 for physicians age 40 to 55.
Analysts found that South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming and Nebraska were the top five states for physician pay, and economists interviewed by the Post cited competition and Medicare's geographic practice cost indices as the driving factors of the geographic pay gaps.
Here is physicians' average annual income in 2023, by region, according to Medscape:
West North Central: $404,000
East South Central: $375,000
East North Central: $367,000
West: $363,000
South Atlantic: $362,000
West South Central: $361,000
Pacific (includes Alaska and Hawaii): $357,000
New England: $355,000
Mid-Atlantic: $351,000