Real physician compensation and salary data — base pay, bonuses, RVUs, and employment trends — from physicians who signed employment agreements within the last 12–18 months.
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Traditional salary reports ask physicians to remember what they earn. We read what they actually signed.
Across 4,417 contracts in the last 12–18 months, total earning potential held up, but how compensation was earned changed materially. Bonuses replaced base growth. Productivity thresholds tightened. Non-competes narrowed but persisted.
Below are the headlines. The full breakdown, including specialty-specific implications, is detailed inside the report.
National surveys show average year-over-year increases in the 2–4% range, down from the post-pandemic acceleration. Employers leaned on sign-on, retention, and wRVU-based incentives to stay competitive without permanently inflating base salaries.
Midwest and South lead in raw compensation; coastal markets fall behind on a real-dollar basis. Location matters less than net comp after cost-of-living, on-call burden, and contract flexibility.
The FTC rule was formally abandoned in September 2025; enforcement returned to a state-by-state framework. Employers narrowed scope and duration but kept restrictions in most agreements.
wRVU conversion rates, quality definitions, termination clauses, and call pay often had a larger long-term financial impact than base salary alone. Physicians treated contracts as long-term risk frameworks.
The full report includes all specialty distributions, regional breakouts, and non-compete prevalence.
The report is structured so you can land in your specialty, your career stage, or the topic you're negotiating, and read just that. The rest is there when you want it.
Search or pick from common specialties to jump directly to your data.
Residents, early attendings, mid-career, and senior physicians each have a dedicated chapter.
Alongside Resolve's proprietary contract data, the 2026 Physician Salary & Employment Report draws on insights generously shared by these trusted industry organizations. We're grateful for their support of physician compensation transparency.
Physician recruitment & job-seeker insights from its 2026 Job Seeker Trends Report.
Recruitment-market benchmarking from its Physician Recruitment Benchmark Report.
Specialty supply-and-demand trends from its Physician Recruitment Index.
Physician financial-education insights from its annual community survey.
Compensation & satisfaction data from its most recent member survey.
Partner data is used as comparative context alongside Resolve's primary contract dataset. See the full methodology and data sources.
Traditional surveys aggregate self-reported compensation. Resolve reads the actual signed contracts so you see how comp, productivity, call, and restrictive terms coexist in the same agreement, not in isolation.
Section 15 of the report includes the full methodology, inclusion thresholds, and limitations.
Primary data drawn from physician employment contracts uploaded to Resolve for analysis, plus offer letters and policy exhibits that materially affect comp, workload, or restrictive terms.
AMGA, SullivanCotter, AMA and other published reports were used as comparative reference points, not as standalone representations of market conditions.
Contracts submitted within the 12–18 months leading into the 2026 cycle, prioritizing current negotiating conditions over lagging annual surveys.
Multi-step verification on upload. Identifying personal and employer info was removed before aggregation. Outliers flagged and reviewed before inclusion.
Resolve is the #1 rated physician contract review team in the US. By analyzing contracts across specialties, employers, and regions, we surface how physician employment is actually evolving — based on where you work, not just how it's reported in broad generalizations.
If you're a journalist, reporter, or blogger interested in our Salary Report or would like additional data, insights, or media resources, please contact our media team at [email protected]
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