Two Hospitalist listings. Same state. A $390,000 gap between them.

In New York alone, you can be hired to round on inpatients in Corning for up to $600,000, or do roughly the same work in Brooklyn for $210,000. The job title is identical. The zip code is doing all the talking. Across the country, PhysEmp identified 495 active Hospitalist listings spanning nearly every state in the union, from Alaska to Alabama, with compensation that swings by a factor of nearly three depending on where you point the car.

The Hospitalist market is deep, geographically promiscuous, and quietly stratified — and the states posting the most jobs are often the ones telling you the least about what they pay.
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The Hospitalist Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 495
Listings with salary data: 53
Full national salary range: $210,000 to $600,000
National average salary range: $311,947 to $346,352

The spread is the story. A Hospitalist job is, on paper, a Hospitalist job — twelve-hour shifts, admissions, discharges, the occasional rapid response, repeat — yet the market is willing to price that work anywhere from the low $200,000s to the high $500,000s. Most positions cluster between $250,000 and $400,000, which is wide enough to drive a small hospital system through.

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

Forty-nine states. One specialty. Very little agreement on what it should cost.
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How States Stack Up

Overperformers

• Kentucky: A single disclosed listing at $400,000 flat — small sample, loud signal.
• Pennsylvania: $283,333 to $433,333, with real ceiling and 17 listings to choose from.
• New Jersey: $295,424 to $412,091, the rare Northeast market that pays like one.
• Iowa: $353,000 average — quietly outperforming on a corn-fed budget.
• Washington: $351,667 to $360,000, a tight range that punches above the national average.
• Minnesota: $350,000 flat — predictable, which Minnesotans tend to prefer.
• Hawaii: $342,500 to $350,000 (the rent eats most of it, but still).
• South Carolina: A single listing spanning $254,000 to $400,000 — wide enough to mean almost anything.
• Rhode Island: $333,000 flat, on a single disclosure.
• New York: $331,430 to $385,430 on ten disclosed listings — the deepest premium market with the most credible data.

Near-average

• Massachusetts: $313,750 to $324,750, tracking national norms with real volume behind it.
• California: $322,857 to $328,571 — average pay in an above-average cost-of-living state.
• Missouri: $319,333 flat, the textbook middle of the market.
• Ohio: $300,000 flat, the textbook middle of the middle.
• New Hampshire: $300,000 to $350,000 on a single listing.

Underperformers

• Maryland: $240,000 to $250,000, the floor among disclosed averages.
• Indiana: $250,000 flat.
• Florida: $270,000 to $280,000 on a single disclosure out of 26 listings (more on that).
• Vermont: $274,800 flat — pastoral, but it shows up in the paycheck.
• Connecticut: $274,000 to $302,700, a meaningful discount to its New York and New Jersey neighbors.

Volume leaders

Tennessee leads the country with 34 listings — and zero salary disclosures. Florida and California tie at 26 (Florida pays below average where it discloses; California is squarely middle-of-the-pack). North Carolina posted 25 listings with no salary data at all. Massachusetts and Alabama tie at 22, with Massachusetts paying above average and Alabama saying nothing. New York and Pennsylvania each posted 17, and both states actually tell you what the jobs pay.

Tennessee is the busiest market in America for Hospitalists and also the most silent. Read into that what you will.
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What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation: Point yourself at Corning, NY, where a Hospitalist listing tops the national board at $350,000 to $600,000. Outside that ceiling, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Kentucky offer the most credible above-average payouts. Hawaii’s $342,500 to $350,000 looks great until you price a one-bedroom in Honolulu — flag that as a cost-of-living mismatch.

If your priority is maximum optionality: Tennessee (34), Florida (26), California (26), North Carolina (25), Massachusetts (22), and Alabama (22) give you the most doors to knock on. Four of those six disclose almost nothing about pay.

If your priority is balance: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington, and New York deliver above-average compensation alongside real listing volume and actual salary transparency. That is a rarer combination than it should be.
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What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 53 of 495 listings, or 10.7%.

That is the single most important number in this report. Nearly nine out of ten Hospitalist postings tell candidates nothing about compensation up front, in a specialty where the disclosed range runs from $210,000 to $600,000. Candidates are not guessing — they are scrolling past.

The volume-pay misalignment is glaring. Tennessee (34 listings, no data), North Carolina (25, no data), and Alabama (22, no data) collectively post 81 jobs and disclose nothing. Recruiters in those markets will need to lead with culture, schedule structure, patient load caps, signing bonuses, and loan repayment — because in the absence of a number, every competing posting that does show a number wins the click.
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What’s Driving the Numbers

The transparency gap is the market. With only 10.7% of listings disclosing pay, the Hospitalist market is functionally two markets: one where employers compete on number, and one where they compete on hope. The disclosed market clusters tightly between $311,947 and $346,352. The undisclosed market is a black box that candidates increasingly assume pays less.

Scope and ceiling command a premium. The Corning, NY listing at $350,000 to $600,000 is not a typo — it is what underserved regional markets pay when they need a Hospitalist to actually show up. Rural and small-metro New York, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky are pricing in scarcity, and the ceiling reflects it.

Part-time and single-listing states distort the floor. Maryland (one listing), Indiana (one), Florida (one of 26), and Vermont (two) are all setting state-level averages off tiny samples. The $240,000 Maryland floor is a single data point, not a market. Treat outliers accordingly.

Volume does not buy compensation. The states posting the most Hospitalist jobs — Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama — are either below average or silent on pay. The states paying the most — Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington — post moderate volume. High demand is not translating into higher disclosed wages, which suggests employers in the busy markets believe they can compete on something other than money. Whether candidates agree is the open question.

The Bottom Line

The Hospitalist market in 2026 is deep, national, and structurally opaque. There is real money available — up to $600,000 for the right rural ceiling job — and real floor risk if you sign in the wrong zip code without checking the comps. The states that disclose tend to pay competitively. The states that don’t disclose tend to lead in volume. Physicians have leverage; recruiters in silent markets are about to learn how much.

Hospitalist medicine is the same job in every hospital in America, priced as if it were forty-nine different jobs by employers who would mostly prefer you didn’t ask.

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Salary data based on 53 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.