Most physicians are paid a salary: 70.5% in 2024, according to the American Medical Association's Physician Practice Benchmark Survey of 5,000 physicians. The same survey found that 60.8% of physicians are paid by two or more methods, up from 51.0% in 2014.
The AMA published the analysis in March 2026 as a Policy Research Perspective by Apoorva Rama Igwe, PhD. It covers 2014 to 2024, with 3,500 respondents in each earlier survey year and 5,000 in 2024. Solo practitioners are excluded, because a solo owner's pay is tied to the practice by definition. Respondents worked at least 20 hours a week in patient care and did not work for the federal government.
How many physicians are paid each way
Physicians can select more than one method, so the shares add to more than 100.0%. Salary is the most common at 70.5%, and productivity is next at 55.0%. Bonuses reach 39.0% of physicians and pay tied to practice financial performance reaches 27.9%. Only 3.2% report some other method.
| Pay method | Share of physicians, 2024 | Change since 2014 |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | 70.5% | Up 9 points |
| Productivity | 55.0% | Up 2 points |
| Bonus | 39.0% | Up 9 points |
| Practice financial performance | 27.9% | Down 4 points |
| Other | 3.2% | Not stated |
Source: American Medical Association, Physician Practice Benchmark Survey, 2024 data, 5,000 physicians, solo practitioners excluded.
Pay plans now mix methods. The share of physicians paid by one method fell from 49.0% in 2014 to 39.2% in 2024. Those paid by two methods rose from 29.6% to 34.3%. Those paid by three or more rose from 21.5% to 26.6%. The most common three-way mix is salary, productivity and bonus together, which gained almost 5 points.
How much of total pay each method supplies
Prevalence and weight are different measures. On average, salary supplied 58.2% of a physician's income in 2024, up from 50.1% in 2014. Productivity supplied 28.1%, down from 32.6%. Practice financial performance fell from 11.8% to 7.0%. Bonuses moved from 3.8% to 4.4%.
Productivity pay is more common than in 2014 but carries less weight, because many plans now add it on top of a base salary instead of using it alone. The AMA sorted physicians by whether one method supplied most of their pay. The share paid mostly, but not entirely, by salary rose from 32.2% to 43.2%. Within that group, those who also had a bonus went from 19.7% to 28.8%. Those who also had a productivity component went from 17.5% to 24.8%. The share paid mostly by productivity barely moved, from 9.9% to 10.6%.
Among physicians who receive a salary, 66.4% said specialty sets the amount, and 47.3% said time worked in the practice does.
Owners and employees are paid differently
Employment status is the largest divide in the data. Salary made up 69.5% of pay for employed physicians in 2024, twice the 35.0% share for owners. Productivity supplied 40.8% of owner pay and 21.9% of employee pay. Practice financial performance supplied 18.2% of owner pay and 2.5% of employee pay.
Employees are not paid on salary alone. The AMA reports that variable methods, meaning productivity and practice financial performance, make up nearly one-quarter of employed physicians' pay. Owners still draw a third of their income as salary.
The move toward salary is not only a result of more physicians becoming employees. Average salary share rose 4 points for owners and 3 points for employees between 2014 and 2024. The AMA also found that employment setting matters. Physicians employed by a practice, whether private or hospital-owned, got roughly 68% of pay from salary. Physicians employed directly by a hospital got 76%.
Pay mix by practice type and specialty
Practice type changes the mix. Hospital-based physicians, meaning those employed by or under contract with a hospital, drew 74.7% of pay from salary and 15.0% from productivity. Single-specialty group physicians drew 47.8% from salary and 34.8% from productivity.
| Practice type | Salary | Productivity | Practice financial performance | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single specialty | 47.8% | 34.8% | 10.7% | 4.5% |
| Multispecialty | 58.2% | 30.0% | 6.0% | 4.1% |
| Hospital | 74.7% | 15.0% | 2.5% | 4.9% |
| Other | 74.7% | 14.5% | 2.3% | 4.2% |
Source: American Medical Association, Physician Practice Benchmark Survey, 2024 data, mean share of compensation by practice type. The remainder is other pay.
Multispecialty groups pay about 10 points more of income as salary than single-specialty groups. The AMA saw the gap inside specialties too. Pediatricians in multispecialty practices had an average salary share 10 points higher than pediatricians in single-specialty practices.
Specialty matters most in procedural fields. Average salary share was above 50.0% for nearly every specialty. The exceptions were ophthalmologists at 35.3%, orthopedic surgeons at 36.0%, and other surgical subspecialists at 45.6%. Those three specialties also had the highest productivity shares, at 57.1%, 52.6% and 40.7%. Every other specialty drew less than 30.0% of pay from productivity. Radiologists were the one group with a large practice-performance share, at 17.8%. For most specialties that share was below 10.0%.
What the figures mean for a practice pay plan
Pay from a single method now covers 39.2% of physicians, down from 49.0% in 2014. Physicians paid only on productivity fell by 5 points over the decade, and those paid only on practice financial performance fell by 4 points.
For budgeting, the variable share is the moving part. If an employed physician's pay is about 69.5% salary and nearly one-quarter variable, then collections, visit volume and wRVU output change payroll cost every month. Practice profit reaches pay mostly for owners, at 18.2% of their income, and barely for employees, at 2.5%.
The AMA data cover the share of pay, not its dollar value. They do not say what any specialty earns.
Sources
- American Medical Association, Physician compensation methods: Although salary-based models dominate, productivity-based models remain prominent, Policy Research Perspectives, March 2026
- American Medical Association, Physician Practice Benchmark Survey 2024: Physician Compensation, 2026
Talk to us
Fifteen minutes about your practice and the systems you run.