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Role hub · Emergency Medicine Physicians

Emergency Medicine Physician: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of emergency medicine physicians earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$335,550
Hourly
$161.32
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Emergency Medicine Physicians make immediate medical decisions and act to prevent death or further disability. The median pay is $335,550 a year ($161.32 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is post-doctoral training (62% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$335,550
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
32,880
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 5 of 5
extensive preparation
Most common education
Post-Doctoral Training
62% of workers
Key facts

Emergency Medicine Physicians at a glance

  • Emergency medicine physicians in the United States earned a median annual wage of $335,550 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a doctoral or professional degree as the typical entry-level education for emergency medicine physicians in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of emergency medicine physicians in the United States to grow 3.2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 900 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimated that 32,880 people were employed as emergency medicine physicians in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

Explore the role

Every page for Emergency Medicine Physicians

SalaryEmergency Medicine Physician salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →Career changeEmergency Medicine Physician career change

Where these skills transfer, with skill match and pay change.

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The work

What emergency medicine physicians do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs.
  2. Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs and priority of treatment.
  3. Perform emergency resuscitations on patients.
  4. Stabilize patients in critical condition.
  5. Perform such medical procedures as emergent cricothyrotomy, endotracheal intubation, and emergency thoracotomy.
  6. Analyze records, examination information, or test results to diagnose medical conditions.
  7. Consult with hospitalists and other professionals, such as social workers, regarding patients' hospital admission, continued observation, transition of care, or discharge.
  8. Conduct primary patient assessments that include information from prior medical care.
Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all emergency medicine physician jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Ambulatory healthcare services55.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +6.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $321,070
  2. Hospitals; state, local, and private34.3% of all jobs in this occupation · -1.4% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $320,520
  3. Educational services; state, local, and private4.6% of all jobs in this occupation · +2.8% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $247,160
  4. Management of companies and enterprises0.9% of all jobs in this occupation · +4.6% projected change here 2025–35

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Active ListeningcoreCritical ThinkingcoreSocial PerceptivenesscoreReading ComprehensionSpeakingService OrientationComplex Problem SolvingJudgment and Decision MakingWriting

Knowledge areas: Medicine and Dentistry, English Language, Biology, Psychology, Therapy and Counseling, Customer and Personal Service.

Tools and technology

Software emergency medicine physicians use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Epic SystemsMedical softwareIn demand
  • MEDITECH softwareMedical softwareHot technology

Also called: Attending Emergency Physician, Attending Physician, Emergency MD (Emergency Medicine Doctor), Emergency Medicine Physician (EM Physician), Emergency Physician, MD (Medical Doctor).

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.