The average starting salary for cardiologists rose 31.2% from 2022-23 to 2025-26, to $568,000, according to a Sept. 16 white paper from AMN Healthcare.
The “2026 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives” report includes data from a representative sample of the 1,293 permanent physician and advanced practitioner search engagements conducted by AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026. AMN Healthcare used base salary or guaranteed income only, and did not include production bonus, signing bonus, allowances or benefits.
This year, AMN Healthcare began tracking the starting salary for interventional cardiology. Across all positions, interventional cardiologists had an average starting salary of $650,000, compared with $568,000 for general cardiologists.
Here is the starting salary by year for cardiology.
| Average starting salary 2025-26 | Average starting salary 2024-25 | Average starting salary 2023-24 | Average starting salary 2022-23 | Year-over-year change (2024-25 to 2025-26) | |
| All positions | $568,000 | $470,000 | $396,000 | $433,000 | +20.9% |
| Academic | $536,000 | $411,000 | Not available | Not available | +30.4% |
| Nonacademic | $588,500 | $610,000 | Not available | Not available | -3.5% |
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