The highest-paying Radiology job in America right now is not in Manhattan, Malibu, or Miami. It is in Normal, Illinois. The salary is $850,000. The town is, per its own name, normal. Across the country, 334 Radiology listings are currently active in 40 states, spanning every conceivable geography from Hawaiian beaches to North Dakota winters. The data tells a clear story: in Radiology, the money follows the shadows on the screen, not the skyline outside the reading room.
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The Radiology Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 334
Listings with salary data: 25
Full national range: $400,000 to $850,000
Average range: $545,716 to $620,378
Locum rates: $340 to $365 per hour (annualized at 2,080 hours: $707,200 to $759,200)

The spread is wide enough to drive a CT scanner through. A Radiologist on the floor of this market earns $400,000. A Radiologist at the ceiling earns more than double that, without leaving the contiguous reading queue. The locum tenens band sits comfortably above the full-time average, which is its own quiet commentary on what hospitals will pay when they need someone to cover the night shift yesterday.

States represented (40): FL, PA, KY, IN, TX, NY, IL, CA, MI, ND, GA, MO, OH, NC, WA, VA, AZ, LA, SC, OK, MD, WI, TN, IA, MN, NJ, CO, NM, MT, UT, AL, AR, OR, ME, MA, NE, HI, ID, NH, SD.
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How States Stack Up

Overperformers:

• Colorado ($750,000 to $790,000): The mountain premium is real, the listing count is three.
• Illinois ($653,333 to $787,667): Home of the $850,000 outlier in Normal, which is anything but.
• North Carolina ($707,200 to $759,200): A single listing pegged squarely to the locum scale.
• Ohio ($650,000 flat): One listing, but it punches well above national average.
• Washington ($589,346 to $637,131): Quietly competitive without making a scene.

Near-average:

• Maryland ($525,000 to $575,000): The benchmark itself, more or less.
• Missouri ($524,250 to $557,000): A reliable middle-American midpoint.
• New Jersey ($488,333 to $550,000): Solid, if unspectacular.
• Alabama ($600,000 flat): One listing sitting comfortably in the middle.

Underperformers:

• Hawaii ($400,000 to $500,000): Paradise tax, applied directly to the paycheck.
• New York ($450,000 to $633,333): A high-cost state with a floor below the national low.
• Florida ($450,000 to $550,000): The volume leader, paying like it knows you want to live there anyway.
• Massachusetts ($460,000 to $520,000): Prestige adjacent, compensation lagging.

Volume leaders: Florida (33), Pennsylvania (23), Kentucky (18), Indiana (18), Texas (17), Illinois (15), New York (15), California (14), Michigan (13), North Dakota (12), Georgia (12). Of these, only Illinois posts confirmed top-tier compensation. Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, and California disclose no salary data at all.
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What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation: Look at Normal, Illinois, where a full-time listing is paying $850,000, the highest disclosed Radiology figure in the dataset. Colorado follows close behind, though with only three listings statewide, the door is narrow.

If your priority is maximum optionality: Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and Texas combined account for 109 listings, roughly a third of the entire national market. The trade-off: Florida’s lone salary disclosure trends low, and the rest disclose nothing at all.

If your priority is balance: Illinois is the rare market offering both volume (15) and confirmed top-tier pay. Washington and Maryland offer mid-to-upper compensation in stable, transparent markets. New York is the cost-of-living mismatch to scrutinize: high-cost state, sub-average floor.
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What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 25 of 334 listings, or 7.5%. That is not a snapshot. That is a keyhole.

Candidates evaluating Radiology opportunities in 2026 are doing so with 92.5% of the market obscured. In a specialty where teleradiology has flattened geography and the highest-paying job is in a town called Normal, the listings that disclose compensation will get clicks first. Pennsylvania (23 listings, zero disclosed), Indiana (18, zero), Kentucky (18, zero), and Texas (17, zero) are leaving pipeline on the table. Florida posts the most jobs in the country and discloses one salary, which trends below the national average. Recruiters in these markets will need to lead with subspecialty mix, call structure, partnership track, and reading volume, because the compensation conversation is happening elsewhere by default.
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What’s Driving the Numbers

Scope and locum coverage command a clear premium. The $707,200 to $759,200 locum band sits above the full-time national average. Hospitals are paying meaningfully more for flexibility and coverage than for permanence, which is either a recruiting failure or a rational market response to a specialty that reads from anywhere with a monitor.

Small samples distort the floor and the ceiling. Hawaii, North Carolina, Colorado, Alabama, and Ohio each disclose exactly one salary listing. Five of the most extreme data points in the report are, statistically speaking, anecdotes. Treat them as directional, not definitive.

Underserved and lower-density markets price in scarcity. Colorado’s $750,000-plus average against three listings, and Normal, Illinois clearing $850,000, both suggest the same dynamic: when the candidate pool is shallow, the offer gets deep. Rural and small-metro Radiology is where the ceiling lives.

The volume-pay relationship has broken cleanly. Florida leads the country in listings and pays below average. Pennsylvania is second in volume and discloses nothing. Colorado is near the bottom in volume and tops the salary chart. Quantity of openings is no longer a proxy for quality of compensation in this specialty, if it ever was.

The Bottom Line

Radiology in 2026 is a specialty where the work has gone digital, the geography has gone flexible, and the compensation has gone wherever the staffing pressure is highest. The highest-paying full-time job is in a town named after the statistical concept it most clearly defies. The volume leaders are quiet on salary. The locum scale outpaces the staff scale. And 92.5% of the market is asking candidates to apply on faith.

In Radiology, the images are high resolution and the salary disclosures are not.
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Salary data based on 25 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.