Orthopedic surgeons are offered the highest average starting salary among physicians at $686,000, according to a study by AMN Healthcare Service’s (NYSE: AMN) physician solutions division, released Aug. 5.

The report noted that specialists receive the top starting salaries among physicians.

The next-highest average starting salary went to gastroenterologists at $531,000. They were followed by urologists at $496,000, radiologists at $495,000 and dermatologists at $486,000.

On the other hand, pediatricians are offered the lowest salary at $244,000.

Though family physicians remain in demand, the overall demand for family physicians and other primary care physicians has significantly decreased, according to AMN. The average starting salary for family physicians rose to $271,000 in 2024 from $255,000 in 2023. Family medicine physicians and general internists are both offered an average starting salary of $271,000, less than half that of orthopedic surgeons.

“Current physician payment models favor specialists,” Leah Grant, president of AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions, said in a press release. “They perform the high revenue-generating procedures on which many hospitals and medical groups depend.”

Nurse practitioners topped the list of AMN’s most requested physician and advanced practice professionals search engagements for the fourth consecutive year.

While nurse practitioners are offered lower starting salaries than physicians, their average salary has increased to $164,000 this year from $158,000 in 2023, up 8.6% year over year and 32% from five years ago.

Other incentives offered to physicians and nurse practitioners include signing bonuses, relocation allowances and continuing medical education allowances.

The average signing bonus for physicians is $31,103, while for nurse practitioners, it is $11,037.

The average relocation allowance for physicians and nurse practitioners and other advanced practice professionals is $11,284 and $7,910, respectively. The average continuing medical education allowance is $3,969 for physicians and $2,195 for nurse practitioners.

Furthermore, most physician and nurse practitioner employment contracts offer other benefits like health insurance, malpractice insurance and retirement/401(k) plans.

AMN Healthcare reported receiving more requests to recruit obstetricians/gynecologists in the last year than any other type of physician, except for family medicine physicians. The average starting salary offer made to obstetricians/gynecologists is $389,000, up 6% year over year and 22% from five years ago.

The study also found that 71% of AMN Healthcare’s search engagements were in communities of 100,000 people or more, indicating that demand for physicians and advanced practice professionals is not limited to small or rural communities.

The research is based on a representative sample of the 2,138 search engagements AMN conducted from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024.