What Is the Average Pulmonologist Salary?
- Nisha Mehta, MD
- Apr 2
- 9 min read
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. Pulmonologists need transparency about what the average compensation data is for pulmonary care, 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 online physician 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 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 Pulmonary Care Aggregate Stats Were Determined
The data for pulmonologists below was compiled using data points anonymously contributed to our database between late-2023 and late-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 74 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 pulmonologists, 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 compensation data to help others in your specialty.
How Much Does a Pulmonologist Make?
The average annual salary across all of our contributing pulmonologists was $447,000, including physicians practicing part time and full time (and those who did not specify). The median overall reported salary was $430,000.
Since part-time salaries can heavily influence the average depending on how many hours are worked, we also like to break down our salary data by full-time versus part-time. While we didn’t have enough data to compile an average part-time salary for pulmonary care yet, we did assess a full-time average.
Average Full-Time Pulmonologist Salary
The average salary for full-time pulmonologists was $454,000. A few extra stats:
The median full-time salary was $435,000
The highest reported salary was $820,000
The lowest reported salary was $200,000
Pulmonologist Salary by Gender
Along with assessing an average overall salary, we like to look at how different factors affect compensation in pulmonary care. Next, we looked at the reported salaries for full-time pulmonologists and compared what our female physicians averaged compared to their male colleagues, excluding all other factors (such as specialization, location, etc.).
Female pulmonologists reported an average salary of $433,000, while male pulmonologists reported an average 6% higher annual salary of $461,000. This gender gap is lower than the average gap we’ve seen across specialties.
Some interesting facts:
When assessing our dataset, we also noted that our male respondents were more likely (30% versus 23%) to report working at academic institutions, which typically offer lower salaries.
Our female respondents had more years of experience, on average, which can typically lead to higher salaries.
Male pulmonologists were slightly more likely (8% versus 4%) to be partner/owner in their practice than female pulmonologists. While we don’t have enough data in our current dataset to show quantitatively how employment type affects salaries, we’ve seen in other specialties across our how much doctors make series that ownership in a practice can lead to significantly higher earnings potential.
Explore related PSG content:
How Much Pulmonologists Make by Practice Environment
We also like to look at how the practice environment affects salaries within a specialty. While we don’t have enough data to aggregate an average for every practice environment, we assessed trends compared to the average full-time salary in pulmonary care.
Corporate groups: All of our current contributions reported around average salaries when working for corporate groups, with physicians working for non-private equity backed groups reporting higher salaries than those working for private equity backed groups.
Group private practices: We need more contributions to assess a general trend, as we currently have a limited number of data points that are both above and below the average. If you haven’t yet for the year, please consider contributing your anonymous physician salary and compensation data to help us assess this practice environment in the future.
Academic hospitals: The average salary for pulmonologists working at academic hospitals was $350,000, which is 30% less than the overall average for the specialty. While this is significantly less, we do like to remind doctors that salary is only one component of the overall compensation package. While academic hospitals offer lower salaries, they typically include other incentives, such as pensions and/or retirement benefits and eligibility for Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) programs.
Nonacademic hospitals: The average salary for pulmonologists working at nonacademic hospitals was $506,000, which was 11% higher than the overall average for the specialty.
How Much Pulmonologists Make by Hours Worked
Medicine can often be an “eat what you kill” industry, so we wanted to look at how average salaries varied by reported hours worked by our pulmonologists.
36-40 hours a week: $398,000 a year
41-45 hours a week: $458,000 a year
46-50 hours a week: $466,000 a year
51-60 hours a week: $468,000 a year
With our current dataset, we see that salaries generally increase as physicians work more, though we’d like to note that other factors also influence salaries, as we’ve seen above, and that it isn’t a one-to-one increase in salaries for additional hours put in.
How Much Pulmonologists 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 our pulmonologists reported working 41-60 hours a week on average.
Pulmonologists contributing to our physician salary and compensation database can include how many hours a week they also spend charting at home. While the majority of pulmonologists reported spending less than 5 hours a week charting, 19% reported spending 5+ hours 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!
Explore related PSG articles:
Changes in the Average Pulmonologist Salary Over Time
As noted above, the data analyzed included contributions from late-2023 to late-2024, reflecting data from our most recent salary and compensation database.
We also dug into our previous salary database to get an idea of the trends in average pay for pulmonologists over time. To compare relative data, we continued to look only at pulmonary care doctors out of residency/fellowship who worked on average 36+ hours a week. For 2023, we combined the data from the old data and the new database, cutting off entries at the transition point to help omit any overlapping or duplicate information.
While we don’t have large enough datasets by year to analyze trends from when our database started back in 2018, we did compare salaries for 2022/2023 versus 2024.
2022-2023: $439,000 average
2024: $451,000 average
Salaries in 2024 increased 3% over the average for 2022 and 2023. This increase was likely similar to the inflation rate for the year. We hope as salary transparency continues to grow, physicians will continue to advocate for their worth, and that we will see a trend of salary increases continue.
Additional Insights into Pulmonologist Compensation Packages
Sign-On and Relocation Bonuses Pulmonologists Receive
52% of pulmonologists reported receiving some sort of sign-on bonus, with an average amount of $30,000. Signing bonuses ranged from $5,000 all the way up to $110,000.
Learn more about:
33% of pulmonologists reported receiving a relocation bonus, with an average of $13,000. Moving bonuses ranged from $7,000 to $20,000.
Average Vacation Days Pulmonologists Receive
The average number of annual vacation days pulmonologists received was 26 days. The median was 25 days. Reported vacation time ranged anywhere from 3 weeks to 8 1/2 weeks.
Some pulmonologists mentioned that they had unlimited time off, but that it was unpaid because they were compensated by productivity.
CME Stipends for Pulmonologists
74% of our pulmonologists reported receiving some sort of CME stipend. The average CME stipend was $4,700. Reported stipends ranged anywhere from $1,000 - $10,000.
Average Student Loan Debt for Pulmonary Care
While student loans are not a part of compensation, student loan debt forgiveness can be a benefit with many positions. Of our pulmonologists who reported their student loan debt at graduation, the average debt was $255,000. 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 Pulmonologist Salary
If the information above has you questioning your current salary, there are a few different ways to increase your income in pulmonary care. 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 pulmonary care but are already at or above your market’s rate, you have options in this situation as well. Opportunities to consider include:
Explore other side gigs for pulmonologists.
Additional Salary and Career Resources for Pulmonologists
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?
If you need guidance on negotiating your next contract for the best possible deal, check out:
Also check out our popular medical and nonmedical side gigs for doctors.