The short answer: in anesthesia job postings that stated pay in September 2026, the median anesthesiologist offer was $550,000 a year, the same figure every month since November 2025. The median CRNA offer was $300,000, up from $280,000 in late 2025, about 7%. The figures come from AOC’s own index of anesthesia job postings, which held about 6,700 anesthesiologist and CRNA postings that month.
For a hospital paying for anesthesia coverage, the CRNA figure is the one to watch. It is where pay is moving, it varies far more from state to state, and among CRNA openings that say how they pay, most are hourly or locums work rather than salaried jobs. Each of those shows up in what coverage costs, and so in the subsidy.
Median posted pay, September 2026
| Role | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile | Postings stating pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anesthesiologist | $500,000 | $550,000 | $625,000 | 733 of 2,132 (34%) |
| CRNA | $265,000 | $300,000 | $375,000 | 1,071 of 4,590 (23%) |
Percentiles are of the annual pay stated in postings that disclosed it. Most postings do not: recruiters place about two in three anesthesia postings in our index, and they usually leave pay out.
The trend since late 2025
- Anesthesiologists: $550,000 at the median in every month we could report from November 2025 to September 2026. Physician pay in posted openings has been flat since late 2025.
- CRNAs: $280,000 in most months from November 2025 through May 2026 ($290,000 in December), $285,000 in June, and $300,000 in September.
Too few postings stated pay in July and August 2026 to report a national figure for those months; the index starts in November 2025.
One caution on the CRNA rise. Over the same months the share of CRNA postings that state pay fell from roughly 34–42% to 23%, so part of the increase may reflect which employers chose to publish pay rather than a market-wide raise. We read it as a real increase whose exact size is uncertain.
Pay by state
State medians cover the three months to September 2026 and include every state where at least 15 postings stated pay: 17 states for anesthesiologists and 29 for CRNAs. Figures with fewer than about 30 postings behind them are directional.
| Anesthesiologists | Median | Postings stating pay |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $600,000 | 137 |
| Texas | $600,000 | 101 |
| California | $600,000 | 76 |
| Tennessee | $600,000 | 20 |
| Arizona | $600,000 | 18 |
| Wisconsin | $580,000 | 18 |
| Illinois | $550,000 | 71 |
| New Jersey | $550,000 | 53 |
| Florida | $550,000 | 43 |
| Indiana | $550,000 | 27 |
| Georgia | $550,000 | 25 |
| Massachusetts | $550,000 | 19 |
| Colorado | $550,000 | 18 |
| Pennsylvania | $525,000 | 72 |
| Virginia | $525,000 | 42 |
| North Carolina | $525,000 | 33 |
| Missouri | $525,000 | 18 |
| CRNAs | Median | Postings stating pay |
|---|---|---|
| California | $400,000 | 56 |
| Pennsylvania | $387,500 | 82 |
| New Mexico | $385,000 | 29 |
| Oklahoma | $360,000 | 26 |
| Indiana | $357,500 | 17 |
| Arizona | $340,000 | 29 |
| Ohio | $330,000 | 36 |
| Louisiana | $330,000 | 25 |
| Kansas | $330,000 | 21 |
| Oregon | $330,000 | 19 |
| Texas | $320,000 | 205 |
| New York | $310,000 | 97 |
| Illinois | $300,000 | 65 |
| North Carolina | $300,000 | 44 |
| Michigan | $300,000 | 34 |
| Maryland | $300,000 | 26 |
| Iowa | $295,000 | 18 |
| Maine | $295,000 | 16 |
| Colorado | $290,000 | 28 |
| Washington | $290,000 | 22 |
| Missouri | $285,000 | 23 |
| Minnesota | $284,000 | 20 |
| New Jersey | $280,000 | 20 |
| Kentucky | $280,000 | 16 |
| Florida | $270,000 | 50 |
| Tennessee | $270,000 | 46 |
| Georgia | $270,000 | 32 |
| Virginia | $265,000 | 37 |
| Alabama | $250,000 | 18 |
Anesthesiologist medians sit within about 14% of each other, from $525,000 to $600,000. CRNA medians run from $250,000 to $400,000, a 60% spread: a CRNA in California is advertised at 1.6 times the pay of one in Alabama. Pennsylvania shows how local the CRNA market is. It is among the lowest-paying states for anesthesiologists and among the highest for CRNAs.
How the openings are paid
Across the full history of the index (26,168 anesthesiologist and 47,102 CRNA postings), more than half do not say how the job is paid. Among those that do, salaried employment is the smallest of the main models.
| Pay model | Anesthesiologist postings | CRNA postings |
|---|---|---|
| Daily locums | 15.5% | 17.7% |
| Hourly | 11.0% | 18.1% |
| Salaried | 9.0% | 6.2% |
| Productivity | 1.7% | 0.3% |
| Fee per case or partnership | under 0.5% | under 0.1% |
| Not stated | 62.6% | 57.6% |
For CRNAs, hourly and locums postings together outnumber salaried ones about six to one. A coverage model that leans on that market pays its going rate, which is set by the openings that are hardest to fill.
What it means for a hospital’s anesthesia budget
- Test a CRNA-driven renewal ask against your state, not the nation. The national median moved about 7% since late 2025, but state medians differ by up to 60%. The right comparison is the market your group actually recruits in.
- Ask what is behind a physician-pay increase. Posted anesthesiologist pay has not moved since late 2025. A request built on rising physician salaries needs to show where that is happening.
- Price the locums dependence. If open shifts are being filled hourly or through locums, that rate, not the salaried median, is what the schedule really costs. It is often the larger lever in a subsidy than base pay.
Our explainer on anesthesia subsidies covers how pay feeds the support a hospital pays its group, and the 2027 Medicare conversion factor covers the revenue side of the same gap.
To see what these pay levels mean for the cost of your own coverage, the anesthesia subsidy calculator starts from these medians and lets you change them.
How the index is built
- Source: anesthesiologist and CRNA job postings collected daily from Gaswork, a national anesthesia job board, kept as one record per job per month.
- Pay: only postings that state annual pay are counted in the pay figures. Posted pay is what employers advertise, not what is finally agreed, and it leaves out signing bonuses, call pay and benefits.
- Thin data: national figures are monthly. State figures use a rolling three-month window and are withheld when too few postings in that window state pay.
- Recruiters: about 65% of postings in the index come from recruiters, who often omit pay, which is why fewer than half of postings contribute to the pay figures.
Figures are as of September 2026.