Primary care physicians and specialists both suffered modest salary declines during COVID-19

Primary care physicians took home an average of $242,000 in 2021, a small drop from the $243,000 in the year prior. Specialists also experienced a modest decline in pay, averaging $344,000 compared to $346,000 in 2020, according to data published Thursday.

Specialists continue to earn significantly more than PCPs, with surgical specialists sitting atop the list. Plastic surgeons’ average salary jumped 10% between 2020 and 2021, landing at $526,000. No. 2 on the list is orthopedic & orthopedic surgeons ($511,000), followed by cardiologists ($459,000), urologists ($427,000) and otolaryngologists ($417,000).

At the bottom of the rankings are pediatricians ($221,000), family medicine providers ($236,000), public health/preventative docs ($237,000) and infectious disease specialists ($245,000).

Physicians Thrive, a financial planning company that helps manage their money, compiled the findings from a handful of top compensation reports, including data from Medscape, Doximity, Merritt Hawkins, Salary.com and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The ongoing pandemic has played a large role in these salary figures, with 72% of docs reporting a drop in income. Meanwhile, 43% are dealing with a smaller staff and 8% have been forced to close their practice entirely.

COVID-19 is also altering the hiring landscape, with recruitment focused on hematologists/oncologists, family medicine specialists, obstetricians/gynecologists, gastroenterologists, psychiatrists, dermatologists, endocrinologists, cardiologists, radiologists, and neurologists.

“For the past 13 years, family physicians have been the most heavily recruited physicians around the country,” the report authors wrote. “But with COVID-19 causing a decrease in office visits, 2021 created an increase in specialist recruiting for the first time in over a decade.”

For more trends, you can read the entire “Physician Compensation Report” here.