Pay over time › Emergency Medicine
Emergency Medicine pay since 2021
In 2025 dollars, the national median rose 18% between 2021 and 2025 — from $284,000 to $336,000. Some years are capped by the BLS ceiling, so the true rise is larger.
Adjusted to 2025 dollars
| Year | BLS median employed |
Medscape average incl. owners |
In 2025 dollars BLS / Medscape |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | — | $242,000 | — / $346,000 |
| 2012 | — | $268,000 | — / $375,000 |
| 2013 | — | $272,000 | — / $375,000 |
| 2015 | — | $322,000 | — / $437,000 |
| 2016 | — | $339,000 | — / $454,000 |
| 2017 | — | $350,000 | — / $459,000 |
| 2018 | — | $353,000 | — / $452,000 |
| 2019 | — | $357,000 | — / $449,000 |
| 2020 | — | $354,000 | — / $440,000 |
| 2021 | $239,000 cap | $373,000 | $284,000 / $443,000 |
| 2022 | $239,000 cap | $352,000 | $263,000 / $387,000 |
| 2023 | $239,000 cap | $379,000 | $252,000 / $400,000 |
| 2024 | $239,000 cap | $388,000 | $245,000 / $398,000 |
| 2025 | $336,000 | $421,000 | $336,000 / $421,000 |
Reading this series
Two different measurements. The BLS line is a median wage for employed physicians and excludes practice owners and partners. The Medscape line is a self-reported average of total compensation — salary, bonus and profit sharing — and includes owners. Medscape runs higher everywhere, and most so where private ownership is common. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions.
Medscape labels a report by its publication year, and the data is the prior year. The report published in 2026 describes 2025 compensation. Years here are compensation years. One year is marked "patient care", a narrower measure Medscape used in that report, and is not directly comparable to the rest.
Adjusted with the CPI-U annual average to 2025 dollars. The BLS changed its occupation codes in 2018; both codings are mapped to the same specialty so the series does not break there.
A year marked "capped" is one where the BLS published only that pay exceeded $239,200 (the ceiling was lower in earlier years). Those points understate the real figure, and a series that flattens at the cap is telling you about the survey, not the profession.