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Data · international comparison

What doctors earn around the world.

How many times more than the average employee a salaried doctor earns in 43 countries, how much that is in US dollars and what it is worth in purchasing power. OECD data and national statistical offices, with a source for every country.

Countries with a value
43
Partial data
47 countries
NBP rates

2.86×

the average wage: the pay of a specialist on an employment contract in Poland (2024), each job counted separately; 16th of 42 countries

ExactOECD Health Statistics 2025

73%

of specialists in Poland work under civil-law (B2B) contracts, and OECD statistics do not cover their pay

ExactAOTMiT working document, via Rzeczpospolita (in Polish)

Measure
Employment
Currency
Poland
< 2×2–2.5×2.5–3×3–4×≥ 4×
national data, not OECDpartial datano data
Drag to rotate · click a country

A very approximate comparison: countries measure pay differently, and the data come from 2015–2026. How to read these data

All countries with data.

42 countries

A doctor’s pay divided by the average wage in the same country. OECD: salaried specialists; national data: usually all salaried doctors, the group is given in the country details. Click a country to expand its details.

  16. OECDSpecialists with employment contracts, without civil-law (B2B) contracts and without adding up pay from several workplaces · 2024

    The data for Poland cover only doctors with employment contracts. They do not include civil-law (B2B) contracts, and the pay of one person from several workplaces is not added up — each workplace is a separate record.

    Change over time · × average wage
    0×3×2.861.6620102024
    salaried specialisthospital nurse
    Income tax on wages · 2025

    Top rate 32% — from 1.35× the average gross wage.

    OECD Tax Database, Table I.7

    A doctor on a contract (sole proprietorship) may choose the lump-sum tax instead: 14% of revenue, with no deduction of costs (since 2022).

    Lump-Sum Income Tax Act, Art. 12(1)(2a)(a) (in Polish)

    The Ministry of Finance does not say how many doctors choose the lump-sum tax — only the number of taxpayers at the whole 14% rate, which is shared with architectural and engineering services: 99,490 in 2024.

    Ministry of Finance, Information on the lump-sum tax on recorded revenue for 2024 (in Polish)

    More: pay transparency, OECD data, notes
    Pay transparency · on request or partly

    Since July 2026 individual contracts of public facilities have been entered in the Central Register of Contracts, and a facility discloses pay on request if it chooses to. Nobody publishes the total for one person.

    Public Finance Act, Art. 34a (Central Register of Contracts); Access to Public Information Act · zarobkilekarzy.pl: Lack of transparency

    All OECD data
    EmployedSelf-employed
    Specialists2.86×≈ US$66k · 2024—
    General practitioners2.44×≈ US$56k · 2024—
    Hospital nurses1.66×≈ US$38k · 2024—

    The OECD source for Poland is the Statistics Poland (GUS) survey “Structure of wages and salaries by occupation”: October pay times 12, establishments with 10 or more employees, a separate report from each employer. The OECD has no data from Poland for the self-employed.

Other data, no value in this view

PolandOECDnational dataOECD estimate or indicative ratio* definition differs from the OECD standardunderlined year = older than 2022NBP rates of 6 November 2026: 1 USD = PLN 3.9321, 1 EUR = PLN 4.3925

How to read these data.

  • For OECD countries, the employed view shows salaried specialists: average gross annual income, including tax and the social contributions paid by the doctor. The self-employed view shows income after practice costs. General practitioners are in the country details.
  • National data come from statistical offices and ministries. They usually cover all salaried doctors, not only specialists, and sometimes only one sector. The country details say whom they cover; on the map they are marked with a ring.
  • “× average wage” divides a doctor’s pay by the average wage of all employees in the same country. For national data both numbers come from the same office and year.
  • “Amount”: the OECD converts pay into US dollars at the exchange rate of the data year, and we convert national data the same way, at the annual average rate. Into zloty and euro we convert at the National Bank of Poland (NBP) rate of 6 November 2026, refreshed every time the site is updated.
  • “Purchasing power”: pay in US dollars at purchasing power parities for household consumption (PPP). In zloty it is what one would have to earn in Poland to buy the same (PLN 2.06 per international dollar, 2025). In euro, at average EU prices (Eurostat purchasing power standard, US$1.61 per PPS, 2024). In US dollars, at US prices.
  • Amounts in a country’s own currency in the country details are followed by a conversion into the chosen currency in brackets, at the NBP rate: table A of 6 November 2026, and for currencies outside it (e.g. the naira or the Ugandan shilling) table B 044/B/NBP/2026 of 4 November 2026. This is the rate on the day of the update, not in the data year.
  • Each country shows the latest year available, from 2015 to 2026. The comparison mixes different years and definitions, so differences of a few tenths mean nothing.
  • The OECD warns that in some countries salaried pay is understated: without overtime and bonuses, without private practice, for the public sector only, or including doctors in specialist training.
  • A pay scale in a legal act says what the rate is, not what doctors actually earn, and the pay of a broader occupational group is not doctors’ pay. That is why such countries are grey on the map and their numbers appear only in the country details.
  • “× nurse” divides a doctor’s pay by the pay of a salaried hospital nurse in the same year; both numbers come from the OECD. The chart of change in the country details shows both as multiples of the average wage; a gap in the line marks a change of method.
  • “Transparency” shows whether the pay of an individual doctor paid from public money can be known: published by name by law, on request or partly, only pay scales and averages, or not at all. We studied 29 countries and give the legal provision for each. None of them publishes the total payments from public money to each doctor; the closest are Italy (senior staff only) and British Columbia in Canada (payments from one plan).
  • Income tax in the country details is the top rate of tax on wages and the threshold from which it applies, as a multiple of the average gross wage — the same one we compare doctors’ pay with. For OECD countries the rate includes regional and local taxes (for the region chosen by the OECD); for other countries it comes from national law. Social contributions and tax reliefs are not included. The rate applies to employees’ wages: income from self-employment may be taxed differently — for Poland we describe the flat-rate lump-sum tax; for other countries we have not checked this.

Sources.

OECD, exchange rates and conversion factors (8)
  1. OECD, Remuneration of health professionals (OECD Health Statistics 2025), downloaded via the API on 27 October 2026; sex: total
  2. OECD, Health at a Glance 2025 — Remuneration of general practitioners, section “Definition and comparability”
  3. OECD Health Statistics 2025 — Definitions, Sources and Methods: Remuneration of specialists
  4. Statistics Poland (GUS), Structure of wages and salaries by occupation in October 2024 — methodological notes (in Polish)
  5. World Bank, PPP conversion factor, private consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP) and Official exchange rate (PA.NUS.FCRF)
  6. Eurostat, Purchasing power parities (prc_ppp_ind), household final consumption (A01)
  7. National Bank of Poland (NBP), mid rates, table 217/A/NBP/2026 of 6 November 2026 and table 044/B/NBP/2026 of 4 November 2026
  8. OECD Tax Database, Personal income tax — top statutory and marginal tax rate (Table I.7), downloaded via the API on 28 October 2026
Pay transparency: legal provisions (29 countries)
National data (55 countries)

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