Orthopedic Surgeon Salary in Florida 2026,
$473,750 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $473,750 a year, or $227.76 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 32.1% above the national median of $358,550, with no state income tax deducted. The band runs $228,800 at the 10th percentile to $545,620 at the 90th, and the 25th percentile of $378,410 is itself above the national median for the specialty.

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at $523,610 against Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach at $396,920 — the only two published rows, separated by about a hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. The Gulf coast retirement markets and South Florida differ substantially in payer mix and in how orthopaedic practice is organised.

Demography meeting delivery structure. Florida's population is among the oldest in the country, which generates joint replacement, spine and degenerative musculoskeletal volume at a rate younger states do not. At the same time the state has an extensive ambulatory surgical centre sector, licensed through the Agency for Health Care Administration, into which orthopaedic procedures have migrated — a lower-cost, higher-throughput setting that supports both volume and physician ownership. High demand plus efficient delivery produces a 32.1% premium.

Not at all — no state personal income tax and no local income tax, constitutionally prohibited. At the $523,610 seventy-fifth percentile that is a six-figure annual difference against the highest-taxing states. The point is sharper in this specialty than most because Florida orthopaedics is heavily physician-owned: distributed profit from practices and ambulatory surgical centres is likewise untaxed at state level, where other states tax pass-through income at high marginal rates.

A location quotient of 0.64 on about 580 surgeons looks odd against a 32.1% pay premium, and the explanation is what the survey counts. OEWS measures wages paid to employees on payrolls, and Florida orthopaedics is unusually heavily organised through physician-owned practices and ambulatory surgical centres where income arrives as practice profit rather than wages. Most Florida orthopaedic surgeons are simply not in this estimate — which also means the $545,620 ninetieth percentile is a floor for practice owners rather than a ceiling.

It changes where the procedure happens and who owns the setting. Joint replacement, arthroscopy, sports medicine and increasingly spine procedures that once required an inpatient hospital stay are now performed in ambulatory surgical centres, licensed in Florida by the Agency for Health Care Administration. Those centres are lower-cost, higher-throughput and frequently physician-owned. For an orthopaedic surgeon that means two things: case volume per operating day rises, and an equity stake in the facility creates an income stream separate from professional fees. Neither shows in a wage survey. It is the main reason a 0.64 location quotient and a 32.1% pay premium can coexist in the same record.

Only two metro rows are published and they differ by a hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars, so the geographic picture is thin. With about 580 surgeons counted, the sample is small. Most importantly, the estimate measures employees on payrolls and misses the physician-owned practice and facility income that dominates this specialty in Florida — so treat the $545,620 ninetieth percentile as the top of the employed market, not the top of the specialty.

Facility ownership first, and it is the distinctively Florida lever — equity in an ambulatory surgical centre is a separate income stream that this data cannot see. Subspecialty volume second, with joint replacement, spine and sports medicine carrying the highest case values in an ageing population. Market third, with Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at $523,610 well ahead of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach at $396,920. And practice partnership fourth, taxed at no state rate on distributed profit.