Internal medicine specialists remain among the best paid professionals in Australia, although average earnings continue to vary widely between specialties, new data from the Australian Taxation Office reveal.

Figures from the 2022–23 financial year [link here] show that cardiologists again topped the internal medicine earnings ladder, with 1,046 doctors reporting an average taxable income of $511,535. Gastroenterologists followed, with 570 individuals earning an average of $454,387.

Thoracic medicine physicians reported a mean taxable income of $337,448 across 139 individuals, while neurologists – a cohort of 516 – recorded $337,063. Both remain ahead of renal medicine specialists, who reported $310,882 in average taxable income across 217 individuals.

Dermatologists, categorised separately in the dataset, reported an average of $324,904 across 509 practitioners.

Lower down the scale, rheumatologists reported a mean taxable income of $274,548, while general practitioners, the largest medical cohort in the data, earned an average of $187,346 across 25,678 individuals.

Mid-ranking specialties included:

• Endocrinologists (447 individuals): $285,594
  
• Haematologists (403): $317,620
  
• Oncologists (576): $352,437

Overall, internal medicine specialists had the fourth-highest average taxable income of any broad occupational group in 2022–23, behind surgeons ($472,475), anaesthetists ($447,193) and financial dealers ($355,233).

Surgeons, with 4,247 individuals reporting, had a median taxable income of $419,479, and average total income, inclusive of earnings before deductions, of $492,664.

The figures represent taxable income from all sources, including private practice, salaried public hospital work, research, consulting and academic roles. They do not reflect working hours, career stage, or employment setting.

As in previous years, medical professions made up 28 of the top 30 highest earning occupations in Australia, with only judges and financial investment advisers appearing from outside health.

Among surgeons, subspecialties such as neurosurgery, orthopaedics, and urology remained among the top income generators, with average taxable incomes of $611,754, $512,586 and $537,148 respectively.

A persistent gender gap was also evident across nearly all specialties. Among the 855 male cardiologists, the average taxable income was $557,389, compared to $306,275 for 191 female cardiologists. A similar disparity was observed in dermatology ($500,994 vs $220,902), endocrinology, nephrology and other internal medicine fields.

While the dataset does not include information on hours worked or part-time status, the consistent income gap suggests broader systemic issues in earning capacity across the medical workforce.