Somewhere in Quincy, Illinois — a town better known for its Mississippi River views than its compensation packages — a cardiology job is paying up to $725,000 a year. Meanwhile, in West Islip, New York, a different cardiology listing is advertising $233,388 (which, for a physician who spent a decade learning how to keep human hearts beating, feels less like a salary and more like a clerical error). Between those two extremes sit 245 total Cardiology listings spanning more than 40 states. The data tells a clear story: Cardiology pays handsomely, pays unevenly, and rewards geography far more than it rewards volume.
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The Cardiology Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 245
Listings with disclosed salary data: 58
Full salary range: $233,388 to $835,000
National average salary range: $473,172 to $553,296
Highest single listing: $675,000–$725,000 (Quincy, IL)
Lowest single listing: $233,388 (West Islip, NY)

The spread is wide enough to drive a cath lab through. Most disclosed positions cluster between $300,000 and $600,000, but the top of the market stretches well past $800,000 for the right combination of geography, scope, and willingness to live somewhere other than a coastal metro.

The national average low sits at $473,172, which is a respectable floor for a specialty that involves keeping people’s primary muscle functioning. The fact that the high end of the average ($553,296) is roughly $280,000 below the absolute ceiling suggests the premium tier is real, narrow, and largely rural.

States represented: NY, IL, NJ, VT, MN, KY, WA, FL, MD, MO, NV, CO, OH, WI, CA, CT, DE, GA, LA, MA, MT, NH, AZ, IN, PA, NC, SC, TN, KS, NE, ND, MI, WV, SD, ME, ID, TX, NM, VA, OK, MS, OR, AK, AR, WY, and UT.
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How States Stack Up

Overperformers

• Kentucky: One disclosed listing at $665,600 (flat on both ends), which is either an outlier or a quiet signal that Louisville-adjacent cardiology is undervalued in the national conversation.
• Illinois: $618,750 to $665,000 across four disclosed listings — the most credible top-tier market in the dataset.
• Washington: $508,000 to $653,500 across four disclosed listings, and the only high-volume state that also pays at the top of the market.
• Wisconsin: $600,000 flat on a single disclosed listing (small sample, but consistent with the Midwest premium pattern).
• Missouri: $525,000 to $600,000 across two disclosed listings.

Near-Average

• Ohio: $492,500 to $585,000 across two disclosed listings out of ten — solid, unremarkable, exactly average.
• Maryland: $481,250 to $575,000 across four disclosed listings, anchoring the mid-Atlantic benchmark.
• Minnesota: $475,000 to $607,044 across two disclosed listings.
• Connecticut: $480,714 to $544,286 across seven disclosed listings — the most statistically credible mid-market state.
• Nevada and Colorado: Both at $450,000 to $600,000 on single listings.
• California: $456,000 to $504,000 on two disclosed listings (which, given California’s cost of living, qualifies as underperformance in spirit if not in spreadsheet).
• New Jersey: $487,500 flat across two listings.
• New York: $432,780 to $518,241 across 21 disclosed listings — the largest salary-disclosing sample in the dataset, and unambiguously mid-tier.

Underperformers

• Florida: $360,500 to $495,700 across two disclosed listings out of 20 — well below the national floor despite being the second-largest market.
• Vermont: $400,000 flat on a single listing.
• Delaware: $400,000 flat on a single listing.

Volume Leaders: New York (29), Florida (20), Washington (17), California (14), North Carolina (12), and Ohio (10). North Carolina, despite 12 listings, disclosed zero salaries — a data void worth noting. Florida leads in volume and trails in pay, which is the most consistent story in this report.
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What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation: Look at Quincy, Illinois, where the top listing pays $675,000 to $725,000 annually. Kentucky, broader Illinois, and Wisconsin all clear $600,000 on disclosed averages. The premium lives in mid-sized Midwestern markets, not coastal academic centers.

If your priority is maximum optionality: New York (29 listings), Florida (20), and Washington (17) offer the deepest benches. Washington is the only one of the three where volume and pay both work in your favor.

If your priority is balance: Connecticut, Maryland, and Ohio offer mid-$500,000s compensation with enough listing depth to negotiate. California’s $456,000–$504,000 range deserves scrutiny — that is not a California-cost-of-living number, and candidates should ask hard questions about call structure, partnership tracks, and what exactly is being purchased for the discount.
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What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 58 of 245 listings, or 23.7%. Roughly three out of four Cardiology listings disclose nothing about compensation, which in a specialty where the spread runs from $233,388 to $835,000 is a meaningful information gap.

Pipeline implication: Cardiologists are sophisticated readers of comp data. Opaque listings will lose to transparent ones, particularly in high-volume markets like New York, Florida, and North Carolina where candidates can comparison-shop within a single zip code.

Volume-pay misalignment is most acute in Florida (20 listings, sub-floor compensation) and North Carolina (12 listings, zero disclosed). Recruiters in those markets cannot lead with salary. They will need to lead with lifestyle, climate, partnership equity, low state tax, or whatever genuine non-cash advantage exists — and they will need to put a number in the listing.
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What’s Driving the Numbers

Geography is the premium, not prestige. The top-paying state is Kentucky. The top-paying listing is in Quincy, Illinois (population ~40,000). The pattern is consistent: rural and small-metro Midwest markets are paying a scarcity premium that coastal academic centers cannot or will not match. Cardiology compensation is being set by where the patients are, not where the conferences happen.

Volume does not equal pay. New York, Florida, and California — the three largest markets by listing count — all sit below or at the national average. Washington is the only high-volume state in the upper compensation tier. For candidates, this breaks the intuition that “more jobs means better jobs.” For recruiters in saturated markets, it means competing on something other than dollars.

The floor is distorted, but not broken. The $233,388 West Islip listing is almost certainly a part-time, partial-year, or specialized structure rather than a real full-time benchmark. Strip it out and the practical national floor sits closer to $360,000–$400,000, which aligns with the Florida, Vermont, and Delaware data.

Transparency is the quiet crisis. A 23.7% disclosure rate in a specialty with a $600,000 spread between floor and ceiling is structurally unhealthy. The states with the highest disclosure rates (Connecticut at 78%, New York at 72%) are also the states producing the most usable benchmarks. Markets that disclose less are markets that recruit slower.

The Bottom Line

Cardiology in 2026 is a specialty where the money is real, the geography is decisive, and the prestige markets are quietly losing the compensation war to towns most physicians could not find on a map. Illinois, Kentucky, and Washington are paying like the work matters. Florida and coastal California are paying like candidates have nowhere else to go (they do). And nearly 80% of listings still refuse to put a number on the page, which is its own kind of answer.

If you want to maximize what cardiology pays, the data is clear: go where the cath lab is harder to find than the salary disclosure.
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Salary data based on 58 listings with disclosed compensation. Figures may reflect part-time or specialized roles. This report is informational and should not replace professional judgment or financial planning.