General Surgeon Salary in Florida 2026,
$429,990 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $429,990 a year, or $206.73 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 3.9% above the national median of $414,010, with no state income tax deducted. The band runs $138,220 at the 10th percentile to $502,710 at the 90th, and unusually the 25th percentile is $400,520 — meaning three-quarters of Florida's counted surgeons earn above four hundred thousand.

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at $500,390, then Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach $441,180, Cape Coral-Fort Myers $425,970, Port St. Lucie $419,070 and Tallahassee $322,350. Four of the five are retirement-weighted coastal markets, where an older population generates surgical volume that a younger one would not.

Because Florida's counted surgical workforce is established practice rather than training. In New York, Texas, Michigan and Ohio, a quarter or more of the surgeons in this occupational estimate are residents, fellows and salaried academic staff, which pulls those lower percentiles down to training-stipend levels. Florida has proportionally few surgical residency positions relative to its size and attracts a large number of surgeons who trained elsewhere and relocated — often for the tax position and the state's liability environment. The result is a $400,520 quarter-point where other large states publish training-grade figures.

Not at all. Florida levies no state personal income tax and no local income tax, and the prohibition is written into the state constitution. At a $429,990 median that is a six-figure annual difference against the highest-taxing states, and it applies equally to distributed profit from a surgical practice organised as an entity. The offsetting Florida costs are property insurance, high across the state because of hurricane exposure, and 6% sales tax before county surtaxes.

On this data, unusually so. The state employs this surgical category at 1.41 times the national rate, pays 3.9% above the national median, takes no income tax, and — most tellingly — has a 25th percentile of $400,520 that indicates very little low-paid or training-grade employment in the counted workforce. The demographic driver is durable: an ageing and growing population generates surgical volume, and Florida trains proportionally few surgeons of its own, so it recruits.

More than the median does, in this case. Every state's surgical estimate pools trainees with attendings, and the ratio between them determines where the lower percentiles land — which is why the same specialty can publish a 25th percentile at training-stipend level in one state and above four hundred thousand in another without any difference in what an established surgeon earns. Florida's $400,520 quarter-point says that its counted surgical workforce is overwhelmingly practising rather than training. For a surgeon evaluating markets, that is directly useful: it means the Florida figures describe practice income rather than an average of practice and stipend, and the median of $429,990 can be read closer to face value than most states' can.

The occupational code is residual, pooling surgical specialties with different economics under Surgeons, All Other. The median and the 75th percentile are the same number, which means the distribution is compressed in its upper middle and the figure marks a concentration point rather than a centre. The wage measure excludes call pay, partnership distributions and facility income, all material in surgery. And with about 2,260 surgeons counted, the smaller metro rows such as Tallahassee's $322,350 rest on modest samples.

Market first — Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at $500,390 against Tallahassee's $322,350 is a substantial difference, and the retirement-weighted coastal markets carry the volume. Subspecialty and case complexity second, which is what the $502,710 ninetieth percentile describes. Practice structure third, since ownership income is untaxed at state level in Florida and only partly visible in wage data. And hospital privileging breadth fourth, since a surgeon credentialed across multiple facilities in a high-volume market can build case load faster.