The highest-paying Surgery listing in America right now is a Chief of Surgery role in Smithtown, New York, offering $575,000 a year. The lowest is a locum PA gig one state over in Neptune, New Jersey, paying $120 an hour (roughly $249,600 annualized, for those keeping score). Same corridor of I-95. Wildly different zip codes on the pay stub. Across 137 active Surgery listings nationwide, only 14 disclosed compensation — which is either an act of restraint or an act of strategy, depending on who is reading. The thesis is simple: Surgery pays well when it decides to tell you, and stays quiet everywhere else.
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The Surgery Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 137
Listings with disclosed salary: 14
Full national salary range: $249,600 to $575,000
National average range: $400,193 to $455,364

The spread is enormous — a factor of roughly 2.3x from floor to ceiling — but the floor is dragged down by a single locum PA role, not a surgeon. Strip that out and the true physician floor lifts closer to $300,000. The average, meanwhile, sits comfortably in the low-$400,000s, which is what one would expect for a specialty that involves cutting people open on purpose.

States represented: New York, New Jersey, California, New Mexico, Minnesota, Louisiana, Mississippi, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Arizona, Kentucky, Maine, Georgia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, Indiana, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Utah, Michigan, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri.
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How States Stack Up

Overperformers:

• Minnesota — $500,000 to $550,000 on its disclosed listing, quietly leading the pack (as Minnesota tends to do).
• Illinois — $480,000 to $525,000 on a single disclosed role, punching well above regional expectations.
• New York — $416,685 to $480,082 across six disclosed listings, the only high-payer with real sample size.

Near-average:

• Vermont — $425,000 to $450,000, a textbook national benchmark from a state with one listing.
• Ohio — $373,000 to $545,000, a range so wide it functions as its own weather system.
• California — $350,000 to $400,000, slightly below average (the sunshine tax remains undefeated).

Underperformers:

• Connecticut — $300,000 to $350,000, the lowest disclosed surgeon salary in the dataset.
• New Jersey — $337,300 flat on both ends, and home to that $120/hour PA locum ($249,600 annualized) dragging the national floor.

Volume leaders: New Mexico (15 listings, zero disclosed salaries), North Carolina (10, zero disclosed), Georgia and Indiana (8 each, zero disclosed). The states with the most jobs are also the states telling you the least about what those jobs pay.
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What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation: The Surgery Chief role in Smithtown, NY via CompHealth at $575,000 is the ceiling — a leadership position on Long Island, where the cost of living does its best to claw some of that back. Minnesota and Illinois follow closely, with better cost-of-living math.

If your priority is maximum optionality: New Mexico, North Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana account for 41 listings between them. None disclosed pay. You will have to ask.

If your priority is balance: New York offers six disclosed listings averaging in the mid-$400,000s — the only state where volume and transparency meaningfully coexist. Connecticut’s $300,000 to $350,000 range, in a high-cost Northeast market, deserves scrutiny before signing.
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What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 14 of 137 listings, or 10.2%. Nearly nine out of ten Surgery postings are asking candidates to inquire blindly. In a specialty where top-end offers reach $575,000, opacity is a pipeline problem — surgeons comparison-shop, and the postings that stay silent get skipped for the postings that do not.

The volume-pay misalignment is stark: New Mexico leads the country in listings and discloses nothing. North Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana do the same. Recruiters in those markets cannot lead with money they will not name. They will need to lead with call structure, partnership track, case mix, and lifestyle — because the candidate on the other end of the phone already knows Minnesota is offering half a million.
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What’s Driving the Numbers

Leadership commands a premium, and it is not close. The two highest listings in the dataset are both on Long Island, both administrative-adjacent, and both clear $565,000. Chief titles pay Chief money. General surgeons without leadership scope cluster meaningfully lower, which suggests the top of the market is being pulled by scope, not geography.

Part-time and locum roles are distorting the floor. The $249,600 low is a PA hourly role in New Jersey, not a staff surgeon salary. Anyone benchmarking against the national floor without stripping out locum PA rates is comparing apples to a completely different fruit.

Underserved markets are not pricing in scarcity — at least not publicly. New Mexico’s 15 open roles should, in theory, command a rural premium. Instead they command silence. Either the money is there and undisclosed, or the money is not there and the silence is doing work. Candidates should assume the former and verify aggressively.

The volume-pay relationship has broken. High-volume states (New Mexico, North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana) disclose nothing. High-pay states (Minnesota, Illinois) post sparingly. The dataset is essentially two separate markets sharing a spreadsheet.

The Bottom Line

Surgery in 2026 is a market of loud ceilings and quiet floors. The top pays what you would expect — half a million and change for leadership on Long Island — while the middle hides behind “competitive compensation” and hopes candidates will call. The states with the most work are the states saying the least about the money, and the states saying the most about the money have relatively little work. Geographic flexibility is not just an advantage here; it is a prerequisite for extracting the top-quartile offer.

Surgery pays exceptionally well for those willing to move, lead, and ask the questions the job posting refused to answer.
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Salary data based on 14 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.