Gastroenterologist Salary by State: What the 2025 BLS Data Can (and Can't) Tell You

Gastroenterology is one of the most reliably lucrative internal-medicine subspecialties: screening-colonoscopy demand alone guarantees procedural volume, and ambulatory endoscopy centers add ownership economics on top. Benchmarking GI against federal data takes one honest caveat, though — the government doesn't publish a gastroenterology-specific wage series.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program (May 2025), physicians in this blended BLS category in the United States earn an annual mean wage of $262,040 and an annual median wage of $265,930. The median is the midpoint — half earn more, half earn less — and it is usually the safer "typical" reference because the mean gets pulled around by the highest earners.

A classification note before the table: BLS has no standalone gastroenterology series. GI lands in the Physicians, All Other category — a broad bucket of subspecialists without their own code. Because that blend includes many lower-paying fields, gastroenterologist offers typically sit well above the figures below. Treat this table as a conservative floor and lean on specialty surveys for the GI-specific number.

The table below breaks the same May 2025 BLS OEWS dataset down by state.

Rank	State	Annual mean wage
1	North Dakota	$406,630
2	Montana	$385,010
3	Maine	$367,590
4	Wisconsin	$364,840
5	Alaska	$353,510
6	Kentucky	$331,860
7	Vermont	$331,300
8	Hawaii	$326,890
9	Minnesota	$325,680
10	Indiana	$323,600
11	Wyoming	$321,630
12	New Mexico	$318,330
13	Oregon	$316,640
14	Louisiana	$312,630
15	Tennessee	$312,220
16	New Hampshire	$307,550
17	Arizona	$303,730
18	Colorado	$298,570
19	Washington	$293,760
20	Nebraska	$291,430
21	South Carolina	$286,140
22	Ohio	$286,080
23	Iowa	$273,160
24	Georgia	$269,550
25	Florida	$267,380
26	Virginia	$266,010
27	Alabama	$264,580
28	Idaho	$262,710
29	New Jersey	$260,100
30	Texas	$257,240
31	New York	$256,500
32	Nevada	$251,310
33	California	$249,620
34	Oklahoma	$248,930
35	Kansas	$248,050
36	North Carolina	$247,750
37	Massachusetts	$247,150
38	Delaware	$243,890
39	Connecticut	$243,750
40	Utah	$240,190
41	Missouri	$237,330
42	Pennsylvania	$237,190
43	Rhode Island	$236,360
44	Mississippi	$234,660
45	West Virginia	$228,870
46	Maryland	$228,860
47	Illinois	$220,020
48	Michigan	$206,170
49	Arkansas	$194,980
50	Puerto Rico	$177,750
51	District of Columbia	$154,040

Figures are U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS annual mean wages, May 2025 (51 states/territories with published data; BLS suppresses states with samples too small to publish, and those are omitted rather than estimated).

What moves the numbers

Endoscopy volume and ASC ownership are the real story. A GI physician's compensation tracks scope volume, and partners with ambulatory-surgery-center and anesthesia-revenue interests often earn far beyond any employed baseline. Hospital call for GI bleeds — increasingly compensated separately — adds another negotiable line.

Local demand beats national averages. A state's figure reflects how hard its employers are competing for a limited pool. Shortage markets — often rural or rapidly growing — pay above trend and sweeten offers with bonuses and loan repayment the survey can't see.

Cost of living reshapes the ranking. Several states near the top of nominal-wage tables fall in real terms once housing and taxes are counted, and vice versa. Run any two states through our cost-of-living comparison before you conclude one offer is bigger.

Who employs you matters. Health-system employment, independent or democratic groups, academic medicine, and staffing arrangements each price the same specialty differently — in cash, in upside, and in risk.

See who's hiring. Browse open Gastroenterology roles on VitalPost — free for clinicians, and pay is shown on a listing whenever the employer posts it.

How to read these numbers

A few caveats keep this table useful instead of misleading.

Median first, mean second. The mean is sensitive to a small number of very high earners; the median is the midpoint and usually the better proxy for a typical offer. Read both to understand the spread in your market.

One number, many jobs. Each state figure blends employers, settings, and experience levels — a first-year attending and a 25-year veteran, a rural solo practice and a flagship academic center — into a single average. Expect your own market position to move you off the line.

The survey measures wages, not packages. Bonuses, productivity incentives, call stipends, benefits, retirement match, paid time off, and loan repayment sit outside OEWS. Evaluate offers on total value.

Self-employment is invisible here. Partnership income and 1099 arrangements are not fully captured, which is one reason real-world compensation in some markets runs above what a wage survey suggests. When you negotiate, pair this federal baseline with specialty compensation surveys and real numbers from colleagues — the BLS data tells you the neighborhood; your diligence prices the house.

References

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025.
• BLS OEWS: Physicians, All Other — the occupation series behind the table above.