Earlier this year, Medscape released their much-anticipated Physician Compensation Report for 2022. How much did physicians earn in 2022? Well…it turns out that depends on who you are and what you practice.

Read more in our takeaways, and find the full report below.

 

Gains May Not Be As They Appear

According to Medscape, all specialties saw an increase in pay for the first time in Medscape’s 11 years of reporting physician data. Medscape also reports that physician earning was generally up across the board. However, it is noted that pay was scaled back in 2020 as demand for care decreased during the pandemic. Medscape reports that after falling by 30% during the pandemic, patient demand hit an all-time high at the end of 2021. This increase in demand is responsible for the jump in physician pay, but it returns salaries to around pre-2020 levels–not above.

Read more about 2022 physician compensation in Medscape’s report.

 

Pay Gaps Remain

While pay gaps are not new to the field, Medscape’s report shows there has been little movement toward narrowing the pay gaps between both men and women physicians and between white and non-white physicians.

In primary care, the pay gap between men and women physicians is narrower than it is in specialties, with men earning 23% more than women compared to 31% in specialties. While the overall pay gap has decreased in recent years, Medscape notes that this is due to more women becoming higher-paying specialists. The gaps within primary and specialty care remain consistent.

Read more about gender pay gaps on slide 7 and slide 8 of Medscape’s report.

Physician race was another point of pay disparity in 2022, with white physicians out-earning non-white physicians. White physicians earned $18,000 more per year than Latinx/Hispanic physicians and $33,000 more than black physicians.

Read more here.

 

Rural States Have Higher Earning Physicians

States, primarily in the American South, have made efforts in recent years to attract physicians to rural areas. One tactic has been higher salaries, and that was reflected in this year’s compensation report.

Of the top-ten highest earning states, seven are southern states, with Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri comprising the top four spots. All ten of the top-earning states for physicians overall are states considered to have significant rural populations. Connecticut and Oregon were the only two states outside the Midwest and South.

Read more about top-earning states here.