The pediatrician who automates the paperwork queue
$408,620top of the range in Arizona · middle $210,040 / yr
AI augments this role
Pediatricians in the United States earn a median of $210,040 a year. Pay starts near $91,470. Pay reaches $408,620 at the top of the range in Arizona, the best-paying state for this work among those with at least 500 people in the job.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Pediatricians, General, SOC 29-1221). Last checked 9 September 2026.
Entry level
$91,470
Top of the range · Arizona
$408,620
Education
Medical degree (M.D./D.O.)
Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (Pediatricians, General). Top of the range is the highest state-level figure among states with at least 500 people in the job. AI-impact rating is PayCrunch's editorial assessment. Updated September 2026.
🆕 New & Trending AI Tools for PediatricianReviewed September 2026
We track new AI-tool launches every week and refresh this list — here’s what’s gaining traction for Pediatrician work right now.
AbridgeNEWEnterprise / see site
Ambient AI scribe that turns a patient conversation into structured clinical notes.
How a Pediatrician uses it: document a visit automatically instead of charting after your shift
Microsoft Dragon CopilotNEWEnterprise / see site
Voice AI that dictates and drafts clinical documentation (successor to Nuance DAX).
How a Pediatrician uses it: speak your notes and have the chart written and filed for you
Heidi HealthNEWFree / paid tiers
AI documentation tool built around clinician and nurse workflows.
How a Pediatrician uses it: handle shift notes and handovers without manual write-ups
OpenEvidenceNEWFree for verified clinicians
AI that answers clinical questions from current medical evidence, with citations.
How a Pediatrician uses it: check the latest evidence at the point of care in seconds
NotebookLMNEWFree / $7.99 mo
Google tool that answers questions grounded only in the documents you give it — with citations.
How a Pediatrician uses it: load your own manuals, policies, or PDFs and ask questions that stay accurate to the source
SukiEnterprise / see site
AI voice assistant for clinical notes and coding.
How a Pediatrician uses it: dictate notes hands-free and cut charting time sharply
NablaFree tier / see site
Ambient AI assistant that generates notes from the patient encounter.
How a Pediatrician uses it: capture the visit and get a ready-to-review note in seconds
ChatGPTFree / $20 mo
The most-used AI assistant — writing, analysis, research, and images from a plain-language chat.
How a Pediatrician uses it: draft emails and documents, summarize long files, and get instant answers to on-the-job questions
ClaudeFree / $20 mo
AI assistant known for careful writing, long-document analysis, and coding.
How a Pediatrician uses it: analyze big reports or spreadsheets and turn messy notes into clean, finished writing
A panel that grows up in front of you
A pediatric clinic runs on a panel: the children and teenagers who are yours to follow, plus the sick visits that arrive the same day. The morning may be routine check visits, the kind where a child is well and a parent wants to know the child is still on track. The afternoon may be fever, a cough, an injury from a playground, a teenager who will not talk with a parent in the room. You move between those visits with a nurse or medical assistant who knows the flow, and you still give each room a beginning and an end.
The relationship is the long part of the work. You see the same child across years. You notice when growth, mood, or school is changing. You know which parent wants every detail and which one needs a short plan they can follow on a tired evening. You write a chart the partner covering your day off can trust. A beautiful manner with no note is a problem the next morning. The physicians who build a panel are the ones families will wait for, and the ones colleagues can cover without guessing.
Some of the day is not in the room. You answer messages about a visit that just happened. You review results. You call a specialist when a child needs a different office. You talk with the front desk about a schedule that has no space left and a parent who is frightened anyway. Pediatrics is medicine practiced in short visits that add up to a childhood. The panel is how you remember that the visits belong to one person.
The visit, the parent, and the chart
In the room you listen first. A parent describes what changed. An older child describes it in their own words if they can. You look at the child, you examine what the concern requires, and you say what you think is going on in language the family can repeat at home. Sometimes the visit ends with reassurance and a plan for when to call. Sometimes it ends with a referral. Sometimes the child needs a hospital the same day. You decide that in the room, with the nurse, and you document why.
Routine visits have their own shape. You follow the growth and development conversation that belongs at that stage, you include the vaccines the visit calls for, and you leave time for the worry the parent saved until you were standing up. Sick visits are narrower and faster, and they still require you to notice the child who is more ill than the complaint suggested. You do not treat a chart as a recipe. You treat it as a record of a decision about this child today, with the follow-up written down.
Adolescents add privacy and judgment. You learn what you can discuss with the teenager alone, under the rules of your state and your clinic, and you still keep parents as partners when the situation allows. School forms, sports forms, and medication forms for a school nurse are part of the week. They are easy to resent and important to the family. A clinic that builds time for them keeps the panel. A clinic that treats them as interruptions loses families to the practice that answers.
Medical school and a pediatrics residency
Pediatrics is a physician path. You complete medical school and earn an MD or a DO. That is the broad medical education: how illness presents, how to examine a patient, how hospitals and clinics actually run. Interest in children shows up in electives and in the way you talk about patients. Programs look for that interest in a form they can verify, including letters from pediatricians who watched you with families.
The specialty is learned in a pediatrics residency. You train in clinics, on hospital wards, in newborn care, and in the emergency settings the program uses. You learn to tell a mild illness from a dangerous one, to talk with parents who are scared, and to write a plan another physician can follow. Supervision is the point. A medical diploma does not make you a pediatrician. The residency does. Further training after residency exists for physicians who want a narrower field, such as cardiology or intensive care for children. That training is a choice. A general pediatrician in a clinic is the job this career describes, and it is a full job.
People prepare by matching into a pediatrics program, taking the clinic months seriously, and asking for feedback on how they speak to families, not only on how they present on rounds. Keep a plain account of the settings you trained in. When you look for a first job, that account should match the panel you want. A residency heavy in hospital work can still lead to a clinic. You will want a group willing to teach you the outpatient rhythm if your last year was mostly wards.
Licence, boards, and the privilege to practice
You need a medical licence from the state medical board where you will see patients. That board grants the licence. It proves the state allows you to practice medicine. Clinics, hospitals, and insurers ask for it before you start. Apply while training ends if you know the state, because verification takes as long as it takes. A residency certificate does not replace the licence. Tell the truth about any gap in the application.
The American Board of Pediatrics grants board certification in general pediatrics. That certificate is specialty recognition. It shows the board recognizes your training. Many groups and hospitals want it, or a clear timeline while you are eligible. Use the board's own words for your status. Read the current rules at abp.org. Hospital privileges are a third step: the hospital agrees you may see patients there. A clinic job may need little of that. A job with newborn rounds will need it. Ask which documents the first week actually requires.
Three separate yeses
The state board grants the licence. The American Board of Pediatrics grants specialty recognition. A hospital grants privileges. A clinic offer should say which of the three you need before the first patient.
Joining a clinic that already has families
Private groups, health-system clinics, academic faculties, and community health centers all hire general pediatricians. They do not hire the same week. A private group may want a physician who will build a panel and eventually share call and ownership. A health system may want a set schedule and a salary. A community clinic may want language skills and comfort with complex social needs. Read the schedule, the call, and the support staff. A high salary with no nurse and a broken phone system is a hard way to practice.
Bring training, licence status, and board status on one page. References should include someone who saw you with families. In conversation, describe how you handle a worried parent, how you decide a child needs a higher level of care, and how you document. Skip any recital of treatments. The people hiring you already know you trained. They are deciding whether families will trust you and whether partners can read your charts.
Ask how new physicians get patients, what a full panel looks like in this office, who covers messages, and what partnership or employment has meant for the last person who joined. Ask about call, weekends, and newborn work if the hospital is part of the job. You are choosing a clinical life. The number matters, and so does whether you can practice pediatrics the way you were trained.
Shapes of a longer career
Most people leave residency as employees. The early years are for building a panel, learning the local specialists, and getting faster without becoming careless. A good group gives you a schedule that grows and a colleague you can call. Use that. Later you may become a partner, a clinic medical director, or a faculty physician who teaches residents. Some leave general clinic for further training and a narrower practice. None of those is a moral upgrade over a strong panel in a town that needs one.
Call and hospital work change the shape of an otherwise clinic-based week. Some groups expect newborn rounds before office hours. Some expect evening clinics. Some keep you in the office and use a hospitalist for admissions. None of those models is automatically better. They are different lives, and the pay conversation should name which one you are accepting. Ask who watches your panel when you are on leave, and ask how new families are introduced to you rather than piled onto a schedule that is already full. A panel grows well when the front desk and the nurses are part of the plan. It grows badly when you are the only person who knows the families and the phone never stops.
Reputation travels through families and through the physicians you refer to. You build it by being reachable, by explaining plans in ordinary words, and by sending children to the hospital or the specialist when that is the right door. Restraint is part of the job. So is showing up for the well visit that looks uneventful and still matters to the parent. Groups notice both when they decide who leads the clinic.
May 2025 wages for general pediatricians
These figures are Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for Pediatricians, General. Entry pay is $91,470. The national median is $210,040. The distance from entry to the national median is $118,570. The high end of the published range in Arizona is $408,620. Arizona's median is $233,950. Both numbers are Arizona numbers, and they are different statistics. The high end is the top of the published range. The median is the midpoint of wages in the state. From the national median up to Arizona's median is $23,910. From the national median up to that Arizona high end is $198,580.
Arizona also holds the highest median in the set, at that same $233,950. Minnesota shows $226,660. Pennsylvania shows $226,440. Oregon shows $224,690. Missouri shows $223,910. Puerto Rico holds the lowest median, $98,350. The spread from Puerto Rico's median to Arizona's median is $135,600. Quote $408,620 only when you mean Arizona's high end. Quote $233,950 when you mean Arizona's median, the highest median in the set.
Read a first offer against two Arizona figures
Set a first attending contract beside $91,470 and $210,040 before anyone mentions $408,620. The $118,570 between entry and the national median is a wide step. Ask where the guaranteed salary sits on that step. A new pediatrician with a full clinic schedule should not be left at the entry figure without a plain explanation. The national median of $210,040 is the honest middle of the country for this comparison.
If the job is in Arizona, keep two statistics apart. The median is $233,950, which is $23,910 above the national median and the highest median in this set. The high end is $408,620, which is $198,580 above the national median. They share a state and serve different uses. One is a midpoint. The other is the high end of the published range. Minnesota at $226,660, Pennsylvania at $226,440, Oregon at $224,690, and Missouri at $223,910 are medians. Puerto Rico's $98,350 is the lowest median. The $135,600 up to Arizona's median is the spread between those medians, not a script for a first contract.
Ask what is guaranteed, what depends on visits, and what call includes. Partnership and a director title can change pay later. They should not hide a weak guarantee now. The licence has to match the state, the residency has to be pediatrics, and board status has to be described the way the American Board of Pediatrics describes it. Put the guaranteed number next to $210,040. Use $233,950 when you mean Arizona's median, and $408,620 only when you mean Arizona's high end. The dollars check the offer. A panel of families who can reach you is why a clinic should pay it.
The top of Pediatrician pay — and how to get there with AI
$408,620what Pediatrician pay reaches in Arizona
Highest state-level top-of-range annual wage for Pediatricians, General, among states with at least 500 people in the job. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
And the role it leads to — Emergency Medicine Physicians — reaches $672,830 in Florida.
$91,470entry$210,040middle$408,620top end
Two pediatricians can carry the same panel and sit far apart on this range, and the separator is usually how much unpaid administrative work each one has managed to remove from the week.
Treating children with acute and chronic problems, prescribing and administering vaccination and other treatment, monitoring growth and development, and explaining test results to parents and guardians is the paid work. Around it sits a queue nobody trained for: immunization registry entries, school and sports forms, prior authorizations, quality attestations, screening documentation, referral letters. Most of it is structured information being retyped. Epic Systems, eClinicalWorks EHR software and Allscripts Professional EHR all carry template and automation features that few practices ever configure, and ambient documentation now drafts the visit note itself. The pediatricians who reach the top of the range fixed this first, then filled the returned hours with visits, procedures, or a role that pays.
Your playbook, by where you are now
Just startingGet the forms out of your evenings
Count your after-clinic minutes for a month and split them by cause: notes, forms, refills, results, messages.
Trial ambient documentation such as Abridge or Suki across a full clinic block and check whether you actually leave earlier.
Build templates for the explanations you give parents most often, starting with anything you type twice in a day.
Push school, sports and camp forms onto a standing template your staff prepares before it reaches you to sign.
Work out who else in the practice can act on results and messages, and delegate everything the licence permits.
What proves it: A month of measured administrative time, with two of its causes reduced and remeasured.
Realistic span: the first two years in practice
A few years inFix it for the practice, not only yourself
Own the immunization registry workflow so entries flow out of the record instead of being entered twice.
Automate recall lists for well-child visits and overdue vaccination, and count the visits it brings back.
Take responsibility for the practice's quality reporting, since it usually carries payment and nobody else wants it.
Keep current guidelines in NotebookLM so a question about a changed recommendation is answered from the source during clinic.
Teach residents and medical students formally, because a teaching appointment is both paid and a route to wider scope.
What proves it: A practice-level reporting workflow you built, with the administrative hours it returned.
Realistic span: years three through seven
ExperiencedConvert recovered time into scope
Take a medical directorship or an informatics role where the workflow decisions and the budget belong to you.
Add a procedural or subspecialty line your region is short of, and cost it properly before you start.
Negotiate your arrangement on measured productivity and administrative load rather than on a flat construction.
Move where the practice pays; Arizona sits at the top of the state table for this specialty.
Look at the emergency medicine side, which prices above this seat and draws on the same acute judgement about children.
What proves it: A directorship or informatics role with defined scope and a budget line.
Realistic span: year eight onward
The next 90 days
Spend the next ninety days measuring the unpaid part of your week. Every evening, write down how long you spent after clinic and on what: notes, forms, prior authorizations, registry entries, result messages, refills. Nothing more elaborate than a line a day. By the end you will have a ranked list, and it is almost never the visit notes at the top, which is why most attempts to fix this start in the wrong place. Take the largest item to whoever runs the practice with one specific change: a template, a delegation, a setting in the record system. Then measure the same month again. That before-and-after pair is what turns a complaint into a proposal, and proposals are what earn the roles above this one.
Wage figures: BLS OEWS, May 2025. The playbook is PayCrunch editorial guidance, not a guarantee of pay or placement.
Every figure is the national median from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS) shown on that role’s own page.
Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).
Start with an ambient AI scribe — Abridge, Nuance DAX Copilot, Suki, or Nabla. With the family's consent it listens to the visit and drafts your note in real time, so you finish the day's charting in the room instead of at 9pm. Read and edit every note before signing; you remain fully responsible for it. This one change is the biggest quality-of-life and throughput lever in pediatrics right now.
For learning and clinical reference (never patient identifiers), open OpenEvidence or UpToDate for guideline-level answers, and use ChatGPT or Claude for a plain-language refresher or to draft parent-education material. Keep everything with a child's identity inside your EHR and approved, BAA-covered systems.
The one rule, forever: AI is decision support and a documentation aid only — you examine every child, verify every note, and sign every order. Use only HIPAA-compliant, BAA-covered tools; never paste protected health information into a consumer AI tool. Independently verify all weight-based dosing and any AI-suggested plan against Lexicomp or your formulary — pediatric dosing errors are unforgiving. Get family consent before an ambient scribe records.
The plays — exact steps, exact prompts
Do these in order. Each one is copy-paste ready. You do not need to know anything about AI going in.
1
Chart in the room with an ambient AI scribe
Why this pays: Documentation is the single biggest time sink and burnout driver in pediatric primary care. An ambient scribe that drafts the note during the visit lets you close charts before you leave the room — recovering hours that either become more patient slots (RVU and panel growth) or the sustainability that keeps a lucrative full panel viable for years.
AbridgeNuance DAX CopilotSuki
1
Turn on Abridge or DAX Copilot for a full clinic day, with each family's verbal consent. It transcribes the encounter and generates a structured note (HPI, exam, assessment, plan) mapped into your EHR.
2
Read and edit every draft before signing — correct the exam findings, confirm the plan, and make sure nothing the scribe misheard slips through. The note is yours and so is the liability.
3
Tune your templates so the scribe drafts the way you practice.
Copy-paste this prompt
Help me design a reusable well-child-visit note template for a [4-year-old] well check that an ambient AI scribe can populate: standard developmental-surveillance prompts, anticipatory-guidance sections by age, immunization documentation, and a growth/BMI line. General template structure only — no patient information.
Build the template from generic structure; the scribe fills specifics from the real encounter inside your compliant EHR. You verify every populated field before signing.
What you'll haveCharts finished during the visit, evenings back, and room to run a fuller sustainable panel — the throughput and longevity behind top-band pay.
2
Clear the in-basket with AI-drafted patient messages
Why this pays: Portal messages have become a second, unpaid shift for pediatricians — and a major burnout source. AI that drafts replies to routine parent questions (fever, rash, feeding, med refills) cuts in-basket time sharply, protecting both your evenings and the capacity that supports a top-of-range panel.
Epic In Basket AINablaOpenEvidence
1
Enable your EHR's AI message drafting (Epic's augmented in-basket or your vendor equivalent). It proposes a reply grounded in the chart that you edit and approve — never auto-send.
2
For a recurring question, build a vetted, reusable parent-friendly response you can drop in and personalize.
Copy-paste this prompt
Write a warm, reassuring reply a pediatrician can send to a parent asking about [fever in a 2-year-old with no other worrying symptoms]: what a normal fever range is, comfort and hydration measures, evidence-based guidance on when to give antipyretics, and the specific red-flag symptoms that mean 'call us or go to the ER.' Plain 6th-grade reading level, no specific dosing.
General template only, no patient data. You review, add child-specific dosing from Lexicomp, and approve before sending — a portal message is clinical advice you are responsible for.
What you'll haveIn-basket time cut to a fraction, evenings protected, and capacity preserved for the panel that pays.
3
Answer clinical questions at the point of care
Why this pays: Fast, guideline-concordant answers mean better care, fewer unnecessary referrals, and the referrer-and-parent trust that fills a practice. Confident, current management of the tricky 10% of visits is what builds the reputation behind a busy, well-paid pediatric practice.
OpenEvidenceUpToDateDynaMed
1
When a management question comes up mid-clinic, query OpenEvidence or UpToDate in general terms and confirm against the cited guideline (AAP, Red Book, CDC schedule) before acting.
2
Use AI to compress a dense guideline into a usable clinic answer.
Copy-paste this prompt
Summarize the current AAP guidance on [management of acute otitis media in a child over 2 with mild symptoms]: observation vs immediate antibiotics criteria, first-line agent and why, and the follow-up window. Cite the guideline and note where practice varies. General clinical reference, not a specific patient.
Phrase generally; never enter identifiable patient details. Verify against the primary guideline — these tools can be out of date or wrong on specifics.
What you'll haveConfident, current, guideline-based decisions on hard visits — the clinical reputation that keeps a practice full.
4
Make parent education instant, clear, and multilingual
Why this pays: Clear anticipatory guidance and after-visit instructions reduce callbacks, missed doses, and no-shows — and build the family loyalty that sustains a panel. AI generates tailored, readable, translated handouts in seconds, turning a time cost into a retention asset.
ChatGPTClaudeDeepL
1
Draft an age- and situation-specific handout, then translate it for your community's families.
Copy-paste this prompt
Create a one-page after-visit handout for parents of a [6-month-old starting solid foods]: what foods to introduce and how, choking-hazard list, allergen-introduction guidance per current AAP recommendations, and signs of a reaction to watch for. Warm tone, 5th-grade reading level, bulleted. Then provide a Spanish translation.
General education only, no child-specific data. Review for accuracy against current guidelines and have professional translations verified for medically sensitive material before distribution.
2
Keep a library of these vetted handouts in your EHR so the right one attaches to the after-visit summary automatically.
What you'll haveClearer guidance, fewer callbacks, and loyal families — retention that keeps the panel full and the schedule productive.
5
Capture the right code and run an efficient practice
Why this pays: Under-coding leaks real revenue on every visit; documentation gaps cost at audit. AI that suggests the supported E/M level from your note and flags missing elements protects earned income — and, for an owner or partner, practice-wide efficiency is the direct route to the top of the pay band.
Nuance DAX CopilotSukiOpenEvidence
1
Use your AI scribe's coding assist to propose the E/M level supported by the documentation and flag when time or medical-decision-making elements are missing — then confirm it yourself.
2
If you own or lead the practice, use AI to model the operational levers that lift margin.
Copy-paste this prompt
Act as a practice-management consultant for a small pediatric clinic. List the top 8 operational levers that improve a pediatric practice's margin and physician income without cutting care quality — panel and scheduling design, immunization/VFC workflow, no-show reduction, coding accuracy, and staffing ratios — with a one-line rationale for each. General best practices only.
General guidance; coding must reflect the actual documented visit. Never up-code — AI suggests, you attest, and you own the compliance.
What you'll haveFull, accurate reimbursement per visit and a tighter-run practice — the economics that push an owner or partner toward $408,620.
Your 12-month sequence to the top of the range
How the plays above stack into a path from median pay toward the $408,620 tier.
Month 1
Adopt an ambient AI scribe (Abridge/DAX/Suki) for every visit with family consent; edit and sign each note yourself and measure hours of charting saved.
Months 2-3
Turn on AI in-basket drafting and build a library of vetted parent-message and handout templates for your highest-volume questions.
Months 3-6
Add point-of-care evidence lookups (OpenEvidence/UpToDate) to your workflow and start using coding assist to close documentation gaps.
Months 6-12
Use the reclaimed time to right-size your panel, and — if you own or lead — apply AI to scheduling, coding, and operations to lift practice margin.
Gear for this job
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Same live Jossey-Bass 3rd already on high-school-teacher / middle-school-teacher / math-teacher / test-prep-instructor / substitute-teacher / science-teacher / music-teacher / drama-teacher / adult-education-teacher / corporate-trainer / instructional-designer / stem-teacher / pe-teacher / speech-teacher / curriculum-developer / education-consultant / college-professor / assistant-principal / financial-literacy-educator / school-principal / vice-principal / homeschool-consultant / school-administrator / edtech-specialist / education-administrator / distance-learning-coordinator / capitol-police-officer / tsa-agent / piano-tuner / birth-doula / dive-master / translator / voice-over-director / wordpress-developer / balloon-artist / circus-performer / nutritionist / academic-advisor / dermatologist / train-conductor / calligrapher / choreographer / motivational-speaker / marble-polisher / compensation-analyst / fleet-manager / music-producer / iot-engineer / it-director / media-buyer / hospital-administrator / ship-broker / dean / clinical-pharmacist / dental-surgeon / casino-dealer / coroner / digital-transformation-consultant / sheriff / financial-crime-investigator / emergency-medical-dispatcher / railroad-engineer / correctional-officer / healthcare-consultant / compliance-officer / organ-transplant-coordinator / dispatcher / county-clerk / parole-officer / customs-officer / census-taker / patent-attorney / quantum-computing-researcher / regulatory-affairs-specialist / game-designer / dental-therapist / recruiter / web-content-manager / magistrate / bailiff / financial-aid-counselor / immunologist / nuclear-physicist (ASIN 1119712610). This leftover page is BLS Pediatricians, General (SOC 29-1221); title is Clear the Reporting Backlog; H1 is The pediatrician who automates the paperwork queue; just-starting track is Get the forms out of your evenings; few-years track is Fix it for the practice, not only yourself; experienced track is Convert recovered time into scope; the playbook explicitly says to teach residents and medical students formally, because a teaching appointment is both paid and a route to wider scope; start-here is Start with an ambient AI scribe — Abridge, Nuance DAX Copilot, Suki, or Nabla; one-rule is AI is decision support and a documentation aid only — never paste protected health information into a consumer AI tool. This instructional-technique guide directly supports that classroom-standard instructional work. Classroom technique for leftover instructional work — not leftover Wong as the lead (that is full-stack-engineer / steamship-agent / trust-officer) and not leftover Praxis as a dump. Confirm 1119712610. Live page HTTP 200, no PC_GEAR / amazon.com/dp / tag=paycrunch-20 at 2026-09-18 8:15:00 AM PT. Source page: middle-school-teacher.
What Pediatricians earn by state
These are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own figures for Pediatricians, General, state by state — not a cost-of-living adjustment applied to the national number. Only states employing at least 500 people in the occupation are shown, because a state median drawn from a handful of workers is noise rather than a signal.
Arizona
$233,950
highest of them · +11% vs the national median
Puerto Rico
$98,350
lowest of the 22 states and territories that qualify · -53% vs the national median
The same job pays $135,600 more a year at the median in Arizona than in Puerto Rico — 138% higher. That gap is what the Bureau measured, before any question of what it costs to live in either place. Arizona also carries the top of this job’s range, $408,620 — the figure quoted at the head of this page.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 29-1221. 22 states and territories clear the 500-employee reporting floor for this occupation; those below it are left out rather than shown with a wide error band.
Free data. Use any of it.
PayCrunch publishes verified, BLS-sourced salary + AI-playbook data on 1,000+ professions — free, no signup.
No. Pediatrics is built on physical exam, procedures, immunizations, developmental judgment, and the trust of frightened parents — none of which an algorithm carries, and all of which sit under your license and liability. AI's role is documentation and decision support: it drafts the note, the message, and the handout so you spend your time with the child and family. Pediatricians who adopt it reclaim hours and reduce burnout; those who don't stay buried in charting.
Is it safe to use ChatGPT in pediatric practice?
Not with any protected health information. Consumer AI must never touch a child's identifiable data. Use HIPAA-compliant, BAA-covered tools (your ambient scribe, EHR AI) for anything patient-specific, and reserve ChatGPT, Claude, OpenEvidence, or UpToDate for general education, guideline lookups, and de-identified drafting.
Can I trust an AI scribe's note or an AI's clinical suggestion?
Only as a draft you verify. Ambient scribes mishear, invent plausible-sounding details, and miss nuance; clinical AI can be out of date or wrong on specifics — especially pediatric dosing. Read and correct every note before signing, verify all weight-based dosing against Lexicomp or your formulary, and never let a tool's output substitute for your exam and judgment. The signed note and the order are entirely yours.
How does AI actually increase a pediatrician's pay?
Indirectly but powerfully. Reclaimed documentation and in-basket time can convert to more visits (RVUs) or a sustainably fuller panel, accurate coding assist stops revenue leakage on every encounter, and — for owners and partners — AI-driven efficiency lifts practice margin. It's efficiency and sustainability, not shortcuts on care, that move income toward the top of the range.
Do families need to consent to an AI scribe?
Yes. Get the family's verbal consent before an ambient tool records, explain plainly that it helps you document so you can focus on their child, and honor any refusal. Confirm your organization's policy and that the vendor has a signed BAA. Transparency protects trust — which is the foundation of a loyal, full panel.
Methodology & sources
Salary (median, 10th, top of the range) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS.
By state — the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own state medians, limited to states employing at least 500 people in the occupation. No cost-of-living arithmetic is applied to a wage anywhere on this page.
The plays — PayCrunch's own step-by-step guidance using publicly available AI tools. Tool names/URLs are real and current as of August 2026; prompts written to work as-is. Verify any professional output before relying on it.