Salary is a big part of whether a job ultimately ends up being a good fit, so it’s important for physicians to know their worth in the job market and to ask for it. Having access to salary data empowers doctors to know whether they are being compensated appropriately. Orthopedic surgeons need transparency about what the average compensation is, as well as about other typical parts of the compensation package, so that they can leverage this information during contract negotiations.
We have therefore tried to provide both concrete data points as well as compile aggregate physician salary data on what doctors make, and make it available to our members for free, as opposed to having to pay for expensive databases. Using data gathered from our physician online communities, this series on compensation data by specialty assesses aggregate data from our physician salary and compensation database provided by physicians across the country.
Disclaimers/Disclosures: This page contains information about our sponsors and/or affiliate links, which support us monetarily at no cost to you. These should be viewed as introductions rather than formal recommendations. This information is derived from our physician salary and compensation databases, but is subject to self-reporting errors and availability of relevant data points from our online communities. This information is provided for educational purposes only, and is aimed at advocating for individual physicians. It is not intended to be used for collective bargaining; please see additional disclosures and disclaimers on the physician salary data pages. Please also do your own research before making any decisions based on the information provided. We are not formal financial, legal, or tax professionals and do not provide individualized advice. You should consult these as appropriate. We highly recommend having your physician employment agreement reviewed by a physician contract review attorney to ensure you have the most up to date and relevant information for your specific situation.
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How Orthopedic Aggregate Stats Were Determined
The data for orthopedic surgeons below was compiled using data points anonymously contributed to our database between mid-2023 and mid-2024. While we typically like to have more data points before assessing aggregate statistics for a specialty, at the time of this article, we only had 43 contributions available. Smaller datasets may be less representative of the overall landscape of the specialty. As such, we remind you to access the full free doctor salary and negotiation database to compare your situation to relevant data. A local physician employment contract review attorney can also help you assess what current market trends are in your area.
Unless otherwise noted, the average salary stats below are for full-time attending orthopedic surgeons, determined based on a full-time equivalency of an average 36+ hours worked a week. We excluded data contributed by residents and fellows.
We would love to reassess the statistics and further expand insights based upon future data. As such, we will continue to update this page as more contributions are received. If you haven’t already, please contribute your anonymous physician salary and negotiation data to help others in your specialty.
How Much Does an Orthopedic Surgeon Make in 2024?
The average annual 2024 salary across all of our contributing orthopedic surgeons was $703,000, including physicians practicing part time and full time. The median overall reported salary for 2024 was $620,000. This large difference is a reminder that outliers, both high and low, can significantly skew the current small dataset.
Average Full-Time Orthopedic Surgeon Salary for 2024
Part-time salaries can skew the overall average, so we like to look at full-time versus part-time separately. While we didn’t have enough data to assess an average for part-time orthopedic surgeons, we omitted part-time data to assess a full-time average.
The average salary for full-time orthopedic surgeons in 2024 was $745,000. A few extra stats:
The highest reported salary was $2,000,000.
There were 8 contributions in the 7-figure range.
The lowest reported salary was $225,000.
The median salary was $640,000.
We looked at trends in who made the most in orthopedics. Employment type and years of experience seemed to factor heavily into who earned the most in this specialty.
How to Protect Your Orthopedic Surgeon Salary
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How Much Orthopedic Surgeons Make by Specialization
Orthopedic surgeons can designate a specialization when contributing to our databases. While we didn’t have enough data points to assess averages for every specialty, we looked at overall trends.
Adult reconstruction. Not enough data to assess an average, but salaries ranged from $495,000 to $1,000,000 a year.
Foot and ankle. Foot and ankle orthopedic surgeons appear to make less than the average across the specialty, with salaries ranging from $570,000 to $625,000.
Hand surgery. The average salary for orthopedic surgeons who specialize in hand surgery was $834,000 for 2024. This is higher than average compared to their other orthopedic colleagues. Salaries ranged from $700,000 to $1,040,000
Sports medicine. The average salary for orthopedic surgeons who specialize in sports medicine was $688,000 for 2024. This is below average across orthopedics, but contained our highest reported salary in the specialty. It also contained our lowest. Salaries ranged anywhere from $225,000 all the way up to $2,000,000.
If you would like to see your specialization included or expanded and haven’t already for the current year, please contribute your anonymous physician salary and negotiation data. We will continue to update this page with additional data received.
Orthopedic Surgeon Salary by Gender
We next compared salaries by gender.
Female orthopedic surgeons reported an average salary of $772,000. Male orthopedic surgeons reported a 3% lower average salary of $750,000. Our data set for female surgeons was smaller, and again, outlier data points can heavily influence the data, but we did notice that our female respondents, on average, had more years of experience outside of training than the male respondents. As we noted above, years of experience seems to influence salaries. We also noted that in our current data set, we had a higher percentage of hand surgery specialists for our female surgeons, and as we’ve seen throughout our series of how much doctors make articles, specialization can heavily influence salaries as well.
How Much Orthopedic Surgeons Make by Practice Environment
We then broke the data down by where our members reported working to assess the average pay difference by practice environment.
Group private practice: $815,000 a year
Academic hospital: salaries ranged from $440,000 - $650,000
Non-academic hospital: $789,000
While we didn’t have enough data to assess an average salary for orthopedic surgeons working at academic hospitals, we noted that the current reported salaries were all below average for the specialty. When evaluating academic hospitals, however, we remind doctors that salary is only one component of the overall compensation package. Positions with academic hospitals often qualify for Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or have better retirement benefits, which is one of the reasons we say to consider not just the salary but the entire proposed offer.
Orthopedic surgeons working for group private practices averaged 3% higher salaries than those working for non-academic hospitals. They also reported working less hours on average a week than their colleagues at non-academic hospitals.
Orthopedic Surgeon Salary by Type of Employment
Being an owner or partner in a private practice often significantly increases earning potential within different fields of medicine, so we looked at how the type of employment affected average salaries reported.
W2 employee orthopedic surgeons reported an average salary of $721,000, while owners and partners reported an average salary of $818,000. While our owners/partners worked about 5% more on average than W2 employees, they averaged 13% higher salaries. There is significant potential for additional income for doctors who don’t mind the business side of medicine.
Explore private practice with:
How Much Orthopedic Surgeons Make by Hours Worked
Medicine can often be an “eat what you kill” industry, so we wanted to look at how average salaries varied in 2024 by reported hours worked by our orthopedic surgeons.
36-40 hours a week: $718,000
41-50 hours a week: $693,000
51+ hours a week: $894,000
While we don’t see a precise one-for-one trend of increasing salaries with more hours worked, there is an overall trend where the surgeons who work the most get paid the most. We need more data to draw conclusive observations, but it looks like other factors covered above, such as the type of employment, may influence orthopedic salaries more.
How Much Orthopedic Surgeons Work
When we look at salaries by hours worked, we also like to look at how much, on average, doctors in different specialties work.
The majority of orthopedic surgeons work 36-50 hours per week.
Along with the average hours per week reported, orthopedic surgeons contributing to our physician salary and compensation database can include how many hours a week they spend charting at home. While the majority of orthopedic surgeons reported spending less than 5 hours a week charting, 25% reported spending 5+ hours additional on charting on top of the hours reported in the graphic above.
If you find yourself spending a lot of time charting, an AI scribe may be able to dramatically decrease the amount of time you spend charting. A course on charting efficiency may also be able to help. You can check out our career support resources for doctors for perks on both if either might be useful!
Changes in the Average Orthopedic Surgeon Salary Over Time
As noted above, the data analyzed included contributions from mid 2023 to mid 2024, reflecting data from our most recent salary and compensation database.
We also dug into our previous salary database we started in 2018 to get an idea of the trends in average pay for orthopedic surgeons over time. To compare relative data, we continued to look only at physicians out of residency/fellowship who worked on average 36+ hours a week. For 2023, we combined the data from the old database and the new database, cutting off entries at the transition point to help omit any overlapping or duplicate information.
2018-2020: $590,000
2021-2023: $654,000
2024: $745,000
We see a trend of increasing salaries over time, though we don’t have enough data to break this down and assess annual trends currently. We look forward to exploring this in more depth with future contributions to our free physician salary and compensation data.
Additional Insights into Orthopedic Surgeon Compensation Packages
Since salary is only one component of an overall employment package, we also look at trends in other parts of compensation.
Sign-On and Relocation Bonuses Orthopedic Surgeons Receive
41% of orthopedic surgeons reported receiving some sort of sign-on bonus, with an average amount of $41,000. Signing bonuses ranged from $10,000 all the way up to $125,000. While we don’t have enough data to assess trends by year, we did note that the highest reported signing bonuses were contributions from the current year.
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32% of orthopedic surgeons reported receiving a relocation bonus, with an average of $11,000. Moving bonuses ranged from $5,000 to $25,000. Some doctors mentioned their relocation was reimbursed or that their move was covered, versus receiving a set bonus amount.
Average Vacation Days Orthopedic Surgeons Receive
The average number of annual vacation days orthopedic surgeons received was 24 days. The median was 22 days. Reported vacation time ranged anywhere from 2 weeks to 7 weeks.
Some orthopedic surgeons mentioned that they had unlimited time off, so long as they met their minimum RVUs for their base salary.
Learn more about RVU-based contracts for doctors.
Others, including owners and partners in private practice, mentioned it was also at their discretion. It’s important to note, however, that these were vacation days reported, not paid time off. If they didn’t work those days, they didn’t get paid.
CME Stipends for Orthopedic Surgeons
44% of our orthopedic surgeons reported receiving some sort of CME stipend. The average CME stipend was $4,400.
Average Student Loan Debt for Orthopedic Surgeons
While student loans are not a part of compensation, student loan debt forgiveness can be a benefit with many positions. Of our orthopedic surgeons who reported their student loan debt at graduation, the average debt was $254,000. The higher your federal loan debt burden, the more beneficial repayment programs and loan forgiveness programs can be.
Learn more about doctor student loans. If you’ve been considering refinancing to help with the debt burden, you can also explore our student loan refinancing options.
Increasing Your Orthopedic Surgeon Salary
If the information above has you questioning your current salary, there are a few different ways to increase your income in orthopedics. But a reminder first to look at the overall picture. Salary is a key component to physician compensation, but it isn’t the only part of a well negotiated physician employment contract.
If you like where you work but don’t love the pay, consider setting aside a time to talk with management. If you are a valued part of their team, they may be willing to work with you to renegotiate your contract versus risking you leaving. Their answer may be no, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Be practical in what you’re expecting and respectful in your request. Diving deeper into the salary and compensation data for physicians for comparable situations can help you get a target idea of what to try to renegotiate for.
Looking for additional career opportunities can also help. Sometimes, an employer may either not be able to or just not willing to work with you to get you to where you should be. That doesn’t mean every job will come with the same constraints. Interviewing for a few other positions can give you a feel of what the market looks like from the employer’s perspective by what employers are willing to offer, like we mentioned above. Explore open opportunities on our Physician Side Gigs job board, and explore all our physician career resources and education to help you navigate the job search process.
While we think the data above and in our database can be a great tool during the negotiation process, we almost always also recommend hiring a local contract review attorney for physicians to review your contract. They will have invaluable experience when it comes to negotiating physician contracts, including understanding what red flags to watch out for.
If you’re looking to increase your income in orthopedics but are already at or above your market’s rate, you have options in this situation as well. Opportunity to consider include:
Explore other side gigs for orthopedic surgeons.
Additional Salary and Career Resources for Orthopedic Surgeons
Explore our related articles and resources on doctor compensation and salaries:
If you haven’t recently, please take a few minutes to contribute! The data provided is used only for the purpose of our database to help physicians like yourself negotiate better compensation by helping provide salary transparency with relevant data. The data is completely anonymous and is only available to members of our Physician Side Gigs Facebook group. Contribution links can be found on our compensation data for physicians page.
Looking for a new career opportunity? Explore the Physician Side Gigs job board for current opportunities.
If you need guidance on negotiating your next contract for the best possible deal, check out:
Also check out our popular medical and non-medical side gigs for doctors.