Internal Medicine · Pay & offer briefing
Before you compare the salary, compare the job.
A practical pay briefing for internists weighing a new offer, a first attending job, or a compensation review.
Free to read · September 15, 2026 snapshot · U.S. dollars per year
The compensation snapshot
176 included salary reports
- 25th percentile
- $300,000
- Median total compensation
- $340,000
- 75th percentile
- $370,000
Half of included reports fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles. These are reported total compensation figures, not guaranteed base salaries. The sample is self-selected and is not adjusted for hours, geography, seniority, or job mix.
Start with the practice setting.
The overall number blends different jobs. Use the closest setting as a starting point, then compare responsibilities and schedule.
| Setting | Reports | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital employed | 84 | $347,500 | $310,000–$371,500 |
| Academic | 37 | $300,000 | $285,000–$329,000 |
| Private practice | 26 | $350,000 | $336,250–$392,500 |
| Community hospital | 11 | $350,000 | $300,000–$384,000 |
Only settings with at least 10 included reports are shown. Other or unclassified settings remain in the overall total. Small groups are especially sensitive to who contributes.
The comparison that changes the conversation
A $30,000 difference can disappear in the schedule.
Illustrative offers: $330,000 for 180 twelve-hour shifts is about $153 per scheduled clinical hour. $360,000 for 210 twelve-hour shifts is about $143. These are invented examples, before taxes, benefits, or work outside the scheduled shifts.
Ask for the annual schedule in writing before deciding which offer pays more for your time.
Four questions to take into the room.
What does the schedule actually require?
Separate outpatient, hospitalist, and mixed work. Ask for shifts or clinical sessions per year, shift length, nights, weekends, inbox coverage, and protected administrative time.
How much of the quoted compensation is guaranteed?
Write down the base guarantee and its duration. Keep signing money separate. Ask for the productivity threshold, conversion factor, quality conditions, and what happens after the guarantee ends.
What does a normal workload look like?
Ask for typical census or panel size, admissions, staffing, cross-coverage, and how extra work is paid. A practice-setting label alone does not make two jobs comparable.
Which costs are outside the salary?
Compare retirement contributions, health benefits, CME, malpractice coverage and tail responsibility, paid leave, and any repayment obligations in the written offer.
Put the briefing to work
Save it. Share it with someone who needs it.
The briefing above is free to read. Save it to your account, then share your personal link with a colleague comparing offers.
For physicians, residents, and fellows.
Choose your role to save your briefing.
Give a useful briefing. Get a better offer conversation.
When one new colleague joins through your link, confirms their email, chooses Physician, Resident, or Fellow, and saves a briefing, you both unlock the Offer Conversation Kit: a side-by-side worksheet, schedule calculator, and three conversation scripts.
Your colleague does not need to invite anyone. Existing accounts and self-referrals do not count. Salary contributors with active contribution access already qualify. This reward does not unlock the full salary database. No contact uploads or automatic invitations.
What is behind these numbers?
Source: salaryDr salary submissions, extracted September 15, 2026. Includes approved, non-archived attending reports labeled Internal Medicine, with reported total compensation from $30,000 to $2,000,000. Report dates run from 2025-01-05 to 2026-09-15. We retain the latest qualifying report per known contributor within the specialty, using a normalized email when available, otherwise an account ID. 59 included reports lack both identifiers and cannot be reliably deduplicated.
Practice settings are contributor-reported; hospital-employed spelling variants are combined. Compensation, schedules, and roles are not independently audited. This is a descriptive sample, not a representative national survey or an estimate of your individual market value.
Contribute your own salary report to help improve the next briefing.