Somewhere in Sterling, Illinois — a town most coastal physicians could not locate on a map without GPS and a strong coffee — a hospital is willing to pay an interventional cardiologist up to $990,000 to thread catheters through coronary arteries. That is not a typo. That is the ceiling of a 170-listing national dataset spanning 40 states, where the gap between the lowest and highest disclosed salary is roughly $910,000. Interventional cardiology remains one of the most lucrative corners of medicine, and the geography of that money is stranger than you would guess. The thesis: if you want to get paid the most to open arteries, go to a cornfield.
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The Cardiology-Interventional Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 170
Listings with salary data: 23
Full salary range: $80,000 to $990,000
National average range: $602,921 to $692,269

The spread tells you everything. A $910,000 delta between floor and ceiling is not a market — it is several markets wearing the same lab coat. The $80,000 floor almost certainly reflects part-time or locum work (no full-time interventionalist is accepting that number and a pager). The $990,000 ceiling reflects a rural health system writing whatever check it takes to keep a cath lab staffed.

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

Forty states. Twenty-three salaries. The transparency, as always, leaves something to be desired.
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How States Stack Up

Overperformers

• Illinois: $762,500 to $894,167 across six listings — both the volume leader and the pay leader, which almost never happens.
• Iowa: a single listing at $975,000, which is the kind of number that makes you reread it.
• Washington: $700,000 to $800,000 on one listing, quietly competitive.
• Kentucky: $425,000 to $825,000 — the ceiling is elite, the floor is not, and the variance suggests two very different employers.
• Pennsylvania: one reported listing at $686,000, comfortably above the national midpoint.

Near-Average

• Minnesota: $645,596 to $680,596, textbook benchmark.
• New York: $600,000, which in Manhattan terms is closer to a stipend.
• Wyoming: $600,000, which in Wyoming terms is a fortune.
• Nevada: $600,000 to $625,000, mid-market and unbothered.
• Indiana: $580,000, slightly under but cost-of-living forgives it.

Underperformers

• California: $353,333 to $393,333 across three listings — roughly $250,000 below the national floor (sunshine tax, fully itemized).
• Missouri: $450,000 to $500,000 across three listings, with eleven total postings and persistently soft pay.

Volume Leaders: Texas (18, zero salaries disclosed), Arizona (11, none), Florida (11, none), Missouri (11, low), Pennsylvania (11, above average), Illinois (10, top-tier), Georgia (10, none).

Texas, Arizona, and Florida together post 40 listings and disclose absolutely nothing. Make of that what you will.
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What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation: Sterling, IL, at $800,000 to $990,000 is the highest disclosed listing in the country. Dekalb, IL ($825,000 to $925,000) and the Iowa listing at $975,000 are right behind. The pattern is clear — rural Midwest cath labs are paying coastal-academic salaries plus a premium for the inconvenience of being in rural Midwest cath labs.

If your priority is maximum optionality: Texas (18), Arizona (11), Florida (11), and Missouri (11) offer the deepest pipelines, though none of the Sun Belt trio disclosed a single salary. You will be negotiating blind.

If your priority is balance: Minnesota and Pennsylvania pair reasonable volume with disclosed compensation above the national floor. Sacramento’s lowest disclosed listing of $455,000 to $500,000 against California cost-of-living deserves a hard second look.
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What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 23 of 170, or 13.5%. That is not a market signal — that is a blackout.

In a specialty where top-end compensation crosses $900,000, candidates with options will not click on a posting that hides the number. Texas, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia together post 50 listings with zero disclosed salaries; that pipeline is leaking before it ever fills. Missouri’s misalignment is the sharper problem: 11 listings, disclosed pay near the bottom of the national range. Recruiters in those markets cannot lead with money. They will need to lead with case volume, call structure, partnership track, and lifestyle — and they will need to mean it.
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What’s Driving the Numbers

Rural scarcity is pricing itself in. The two highest disclosed listings are in Sterling and Dekalb, Illinois, with Iowa close behind at $975,000. Interventional cardiology cannot be done remotely. When a regional hospital cannot recruit one, it pays whatever it takes — and the data shows what it takes is approaching seven figures.

The coastal discount is real. California’s $353,333 to $393,333 average sits a quarter-million dollars below the national floor. Prestige markets continue to extract a lifestyle premium from physicians, and interventional cardiologists — who train for a decade to do high-acuity, high-liability work — are increasingly the wrong audience for that pitch.

Volume and pay have decoupled, except in Illinois. Texas leads volume and discloses nothing. Missouri matches Florida on volume and underpays. Illinois is the rare state where the busiest market is also the best-paying one. Everywhere else, the relationship is broken.

The $80,000 floor is a data artifact. No full-time interventionalist earns $80,000. That number is a part-time or locum line item dragging the floor down and should be read as noise, not signal.

The Bottom Line

Interventional cardiology in 2026 is a market where the money is real, the geography is counterintuitive, and the disclosure is dismal. Illinois quietly leads on both volume and pay. Iowa writes nearly-million-dollar checks. California pays roughly half of what a cornfield does. And the highest-volume states in the country — Texas, Arizona, Florida — refuse to put a number on the page.

The cath lab pays best where the cath lab is hardest to staff.
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Salary data based on 23 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.