Looking for the best-paying radiologist jobs in the U.S.? Forget about the coasts -- the fattest paychecks can be found in America's heartland.
The central regions of the U.S. took three of the top four spots for radiologist salaries in the annual SalaryScan compensation survey published by AuntMinnie.com and healthcare recruiting firm CompHealth.
AuntMinnie's CompHealth SalaryScan Survey collected data from over 6,000 radiology professionals over the course of two survey periods, one in the summer of 2003 and the other in January and February of 2004. It covered 15 job categories, with radiology professionals from around the world participating.
The data indicate that three heartland regions were most lucrative for U.S. radiologists:
- The U.S. West South Central region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana), with an average salary of $319,979.
- The U.S. West North Central zone (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri), with an average salary of $315,646.
- The U.S. East North Central region (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio), with an average salary of $311,956.
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Bringing up the rear in the survey was a longtime SalaryScan laggard, the U.S. New England region (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut), where the average salary for radiologists was $291,868. The average base salary for radiologists across the U.S. for all modality specializations was $305,759.
Among radiologists who chose a subspecialty, interventional radiology was once again the most lucrative, with U.S. interventional radiologists reporting a base salary of $328,214. At the bottom of the scale were nuclear medicine physicians, who reported an average base salary of $283,281.
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For radiologists from other countries, SalaryScan offers the following data:
- Canadian radiologists reported an average base salary of $288,327 (U.S. dollars).
- Australian and New Zealand radiologists, $199,296.
- Western European radiologists, $154,977.
- Middle Eastern and Central Asian radiologists, $50,413.
RTs on the coasts benefit
Interestingly, the pay-scale situation is reversed for radiologic technologists. RTs in the Pacific region earned the most, with an average base salary of $57,128, while those in the New England zone came in second, with average pay of $54,941. Both regions also scored at the top in previous SalaryScan surveys.
The U.S. West North Central region lagged with an average salary of $47,228.
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RTs in the U.S. without subspecialty training or experience reported an average base salary of $40,732. Those with nuclear medicine experience had the highest average salaries, with average annual compensation of $58,948, followed by sonographers at $56,327. At the bottom of the heap were mammography technologists, with an average base salary of $47,976.
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Among other radiology professions in the U.S, radiology administrators reported an average annual salary of $79,412, while PACS/RIS administrators raked in an average of $64,374.
AuntMinnie members can conduct searches on comparable salaries in their professions and regions by going to the SalaryScan data query tool on AuntMinnie’s Job Boards home page, at http://jobs.auntminnie.com/.
By Brian Casey
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
May 11, 2004
Related Reading
Survey says rads are working harder for less, April 15, 2004
Survey predicts big loss of practitioners to retirement, changing work patterns, December 23, 2003
Radiology salaries rise again in south, October 23, 2003
AMGA finds solid radiologist compensation gains, August 12, 2003
Survey finds U.S. radiology compensation up 6%, July 17, 2003
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