Radiologist Salary in New York 2026,
$441,580 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $441,580 a year, or $212.30 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 4.9% above the national median of $420,860. The band is $81,760 at the 10th percentile to $544,890 at the 90th, with the 25th at $102,440 and the 75th at $515,990. The bottom quarter of that band is residency and fellowship pay, so the median rather than any average is the number to use.

New York-Newark-Jersey City at $465,780, ahead of Buffalo-Cheektowaga $318,300, Albany-Schenectady-Troy $104,190 and Rochester $77,730. The last two figures are training-cohort artefacts rather than statements about what an attending radiologist earns in those cities — both are academic centres with large resident and fellow populations counted in the same estimate.

Yes. Interpreting an imaging study for a patient in New York is the practice of medicine in New York, and it requires a New York physician licence from the State Education Department's Office of the Professions regardless of where the radiologist is physically located. That rule is the single most important economic fact about this specialty in this state: it prevents New York imaging volume from being read wholesale by lower-cost out-of-state radiologists, and it is a large part of why the state holds a $441,580 median.

Because two different populations sit in one occupational estimate. New York has an exceptional density of academic radiology programmes, so residents and fellows — paid at the $81,760 to $102,440 end — make up a large share of the state's radiologist headcount. Attending radiologists occupy the $441,580 to $544,890 end. There is very little employment between those groups, which is why the 25th and 75th percentiles are five-fold apart with the median stranded in between.

At these incomes, a great deal. New York state income tax is progressive from 4% to 10.9%, and city residents pay an additional 3.078% to 3.876% city income tax on top. At the $515,990 seventy-fifth percentile that city surcharge alone exceeds fifteen thousand dollars a year, which is why many radiologists working in the New York-Newark-Jersey City market live outside the five boroughs. Employees also fund Paid Family Leave at 0.432% of wages, capped at $411.91 in 2026, and statutory disability coverage of up to $0.60 a week.

Because New York's licensure rule follows the patient, not the radiologist. A study performed on a patient in New York must be interpreted by someone holding a New York physician licence, wherever they sit. Teleradiology therefore does not lower New York rates by tapping cheaper labour markets — it only changes where New York-licensed radiologists live. That is a materially different situation from occupations where remote work equalises pay across states, and it explains why the state median of $441,580 stands 4.9% above the national figure despite New York having no cost advantage to offer employers.

The distribution around it is not a distribution in any useful sense — with $102,440 at the 25th percentile and $515,990 at the 75th, the median is a boundary between two populations rather than a central tendency within one. The wage measure also excludes partnership distributions, per-study reading arrangements and after-hours differentials, all of which are significant in radiology. And with about 2,010 radiologists statewide the sample is small enough that the Albany-Schenectady-Troy and Rochester metro rows should be read as composition signals, not as local attending rates.

Subspecialty first — interventional radiology, neuroradiology and body imaging carry the highest value, and they are what the $515,990 seventy-fifth percentile describes. Practice structure second: group partnership rather than salaried employment. Reading volume third, since much of radiology compensation above base is productivity-linked. And market fourth, in a narrower sense than in other specialties — New York-Newark-Jersey City's $465,780 against Buffalo-Cheektowaga's $318,300 is a real gap, but it is smaller than the gap between salaried and partnership practice within either market.