Dermatologist Salary in New York 2026,
$374,010 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $374,010 a year, or $179.81 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 13.8% above the national median of $328,730. The band runs $106,320 at the 10th percentile to $488,680 at the 90th, with the 25th at $186,300 and the 75th at $453,290. The lower half is training and early-career practice rather than established dermatology.

Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh at $405,000, then New York-Newark-Jersey City $374,000 and Rochester $336,300 — the only three published rows. The Hudson Valley market publishing above the metropolitan area in a specialty this city-concentrated is a recruitment premium for a region with thinner local dermatological supply.

A location quotient of 2.92 on about 2,070 dermatologists means the state holds close to one in five of the country's total — the densest physician concentration in New York's data. Two forces produce it. Medical demand is real: skin cancer surveillance and chronic dermatological disease in a large population. But the distinguishing factor is aesthetic practice, which New York City sustains at a scale few markets match, and which supports a volume of dermatological practice that medical need alone would not.

It is most of why a dense supply has not driven pay down. Aesthetic dermatology is largely a cash-pay consumer market rather than an insurance-reimbursed one, so it is not subject to the fee schedules that cap medical dermatology income, and New York City sustains demand for it at unusual scale. The complication is competition: cosmetic procedures in this state are performed by physicians of several specialties and, under supervision arrangements, by other clinicians, so a dermatologist's board certification does not confer exclusivity on the aesthetic side.

A good deal. State income tax reaches 10.9% at the top of a progressive schedule, and a New York City resident adds a city income tax of 3.078% to 3.876% on the entire amount — at the $453,290 seventy-fifth percentile that surcharge alone is well into five figures. The metro table is relevant here: Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh publishes $405,000 outside the city's reach. Employees also fund Paid Family Leave at 0.432% of wages, capped at $411.91 in 2026, plus statutory disability of up to $0.60 a week.

Only because demand is elastic in a way it is not for most physician specialties. In a specialty funded entirely by insurance reimbursement, doubling the number of practitioners in a market divides a roughly fixed pool of reimbursed work and pay falls. Aesthetic dermatology does not work that way: it is a consumer market where demand responds to availability, marketing and disposable income, and New York City sustains it at a scale that supports a very dense dermatological workforce. That is why New York can hold close to one in five of the country's dermatologists and still publish 13.8% above the national median — the additional practitioners are largely serving additional demand rather than dividing existing demand.

The band is bimodal, with $186,300 at the 25th percentile and $453,290 at the 75th, so the median describes a boundary rather than a centre. Dermatology also has a high rate of practice ownership, particularly in aesthetic practice, and OEWS measures wages paid to employees — so the $488,680 ninetieth percentile understates what practice owners earn. Only three metro rows are published, and with about 2,070 dermatologists statewide those rows rest on modest samples.

Practice mix first — adding aesthetic work to a medical dermatology practice is the clearest lever available and is much of the distance from the $374,010 median to the $453,290 seventy-fifth percentile. Mohs and procedural subspecialisation second, which carries the highest reimbursed value on the medical side. Practice ownership third, which the $488,680 ninetieth percentile only partly captures. And residence fourth, given the city income tax surcharge on top of a 10.9% top state rate and a metro table where the highest figure sits outside the city.