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Medical Residency Salary by Specialty (2021-2022)

Picture of Jessica Freedman MD Jessica Freedman MD : Sep 26, 2025 12:37:46 PM

The average salary for first year medical residents is $58,921 per year, according to the AAMC's 2020 Survey of Resident/Fellow Stipends and Benefits. This salary number is based on from 190 institutions that participated in the survey. However, reports listing average residency salary are likely to vary depending on the source of the data and how many respondents there are. For example, a 2020 Medscape survey of 1,600 medical residents reported the average salary as $63,400.

Residency Salary by Specialty

The AAMC does not provide salary data by specialty, but Medscape's survey reports the following salaries by medical residency specialty, Plastic Surgery is listed as the highest salary at $64,800, while Family Medicine is listed as the lowest at $58,500.

Residency Specialty	Average Salary
Plastic Surgery	$69,500
Specialized Surgery	$69,500
Pathology	$66,500
Orthopaedics	$64,800
Radiology	$64,600
Neurology	$64,600
Urology	$64,600
Otolaryngology	$64,600
Anesthesiology	$63,300
Dermatology	$63,300
Pediatrics	$63,300
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	$63,300
Psychiatry	$61,500
OB/GYN	$61,500
General Surgery	$61,500
Ophthalmology	$61,500
Internal Medicine	$61,500
Emergency Medicine	$61,500
Family Medicine	$58,500

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Residency Salary by Gender

Since residency salaries are standardized and nonnegotiable, there is never a salary difference based on gender.

Residency Salary by Residency Year

Residency salary increases for each year of residency training. The AAMC notes that the average Year 1 salary is $58,921 while the average Year 8 salary is $77,543. This is a 32% increase over 8 years, with an average yearly salary increase of 3%.

Residency Year	Average Salary
Year 1	$56,150
Year 2	$58,290
Year 3	$60,634
Year 4	$63,634
Year 5	$66,277
Year 6	$69,043
Year 7	$71,339
Year 8	$75,841

Resident Salary Trends

On average, residency salaries have increased by 3% annually for the past 10 years with a range of 1% to 4.9% each year. This trend will likely continue since residency salaries have increased every year since 1970.

Year	Average First Year Residency Salary
2020	$58,921
2019-2020	$57,191
2018-2019	$56,126
2016-2017	$54,127
2014-2015	$51,586
2013-2014	$50,765
2012-2013	$50,274
2011-2012	$49,394
2010-2011	$48,460
2009-2010	$47,458

Residency Salary by Geography

The AAMC also reports on salary by geographic region (Northeast, West, Midwest and South). The Northeast has the highest average PGY1 salary at $53,565 while the South has the lowest average salary at $55,862. The table below shows the salary for each region, and the way the AAMC categorizes each state.

Region	Northeast	Midwest	South	West
Salary	$63,565	$58,026	$55,862	$60,596
States	Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Maine Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island Vermont	Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Dakota Ohio South Dakota Wisconsin	Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina Oklahoma Puerto Rico South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia West Virginia	Alaska Arizona California Colorado Hawaii Idaho Montana Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming

Jessica Freedman MD

JESSICA FREEDMAN, M.D., a former medical school and residency admissions officer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is the founder and chair of MedEdits Medical Admissions and author of three top-selling books about the medical admissions process that you can find on Amazon.