Orthopedic Surgeon Average Starting Salary Up 12%

AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division has released its “2023 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives,” an annual report providing an overview of the salaries, bonuses, and other incentives customarily used to recruit physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and CRNAs.

According to the 2023 Review, there has been a year-over-year increase in average starting salary offers made to specialists indicating a “continued strong demand for physician specialists.” Notably, “average starting salaries for orthopedic surgeons were up 12%.” Orthopedic surgeons also had one of the highest starting salary increases of all physician specialties, behind only psychiatrists, dermatologists, and anesthesiologists.

Perhaps even more significant is that of all of the physicians tracked in the 2023 Review, orthopedic surgeons were offered the highest average starting salary at $633,000. Across all physicians, the average signing bonus was $37,473, an increase from $31,000 last year.

The 2023 Review also provided data for the average base salary from 2017 to its most recent report. The following data is from the 2023 Review and indicates the low, average, and high (respectively) for the different years.

The 2023 Review is different from many other physician compensation surveys because it “tracks physician and advanced practice professionals’ starting salaries and other recruiting incentives, rather than total annual physician compensation.”

The 2023 Review is “based on a representative sample of the 2,676 permanent physician and AP [advanced practice professionals] search engagements that AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division had ongoing or conducted during the 12-month period from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023.” Incentives cited in the 2023 Review are “based on contracts or incentive packages used by hospitals, medical groups and other facilities in real-world recruiting engagements.”