Explore oncologist and hematologist salary ranges, hourly rates, and how locum work shapes earning potential in 2026.
Oncology and hematology sits in the upper tier of physician compensation, driven by treatment complexity, drug management responsibilities, and sustained demand from an aging population. Across the major national benchmarks, most oncology / hematology physicians land in the $472,000 to $502,000 range depending on the source, survey methodology, and whether the figure captures total compensation or starting salary.
| Source | What it Measures | Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Medscape Physician Compensation Report (2025) | Average total compensation | $472,000 |
| Merritt Hawkins Review of Physician Recruiting Incentives (2024) | Average starting salary | $490,000 |
| Doximity Physician Compensation Report (2025) | Median total compensation | $502,465 |
| SalaryDr Physician Compensation (as of April 2026) | Median verified compensation (25 submissions) | $500,000 |
Oncology compensation remains consistently strong across physician-reported benchmarks because cancer care demand continues rising while the training pipeline remains constrained.
| Compensation Type | Hourly Rate |
|---|---|
| W-2 employed (annualized) | ~$236 per hour |
| Locum tenens market rate | $275 to $550 per hour |
Sources: Annualized W-2 rate derived from specialty benchmarks above. Locum range from available market data.
The locum premium in oncology is driven by complexity. Covering active treatment plans, tumor boards, and multidisciplinary cancer care requires a much narrower physician pool than many other specialties.
Oncology / hematology is itself a subspecialty of internal medicine, but further specialization within the field shapes both earning potential and practice structure.
In oncology, treatment infrastructure and patient volume drive compensation more than subspecialty label alone.
Practice structure is one of the largest compensation levers in oncology. Employed physicians generally operate within stable compensation bands, while private practice and infusion-centered models create additional upside through ancillary services, treatment administration, and ownership distributions.
That gap becomes especially visible in community oncology groups with established infusion programs.
Ownership and infusion revenue remain some of the strongest long-term compensation drivers in oncology.
Oncology combines clinic visits, infusion oversight, inpatient consults, multidisciplinary tumor boards, and long-term patient management into one of the most continuity-driven specialties in medicine.
Most oncologists work 40–50 clinical hours per week, with workload intensity shaped less by shift volume and more by patient complexity and ongoing treatment coordination.
Oncology / hematology compensation has continued to rise. Medscape’s 2025 Physician Compensation Report shows oncology / hematology at $472,000 with a year-over-year increase of approximately 3 percent. Doximity’s 2025 Physician Compensation Report reports $502,465 for the 2024 data year, reflecting 3.7 percent year-over-year growth.
The demand side of oncology is structural, not cyclical. Cancer incidence continues to rise with an aging U.S. population, and new treatment modalities (immunotherapy, targeted agents, cellular therapies) increase both the complexity and the duration of oncology care. AAMC workforce projections point to growing demand for oncology / hematology services through at least 2036, driven by these demographic and clinical trends.
oncology is one of the specialties where demand growth is essentially locked in by demographics. That does not guarantee rising compensation in every market, but it does mean coverage gaps will persist and deepen in rural and community settings where the oncology pipeline has never been strong.
A typical full-time clinical schedule for a medical oncologist runs 40 to 50 hours per week across clinic days, infusion oversight, tumor boards, and inpatient consults. For scenario modeling, a standard clinical year of approximately 2,080 hours (40 hours per week, 52 weeks) serves as the baseline, with most oncologists taking 4 to 6 weeks of non-clinical time annually.
Locum tenens work in oncology / hematology looks different from shift-based specialties. Assignments tend to be longer (weeks to months rather than single shifts), driven by the continuity requirements of chemotherapy cycles, tumor boards, and multidisciplinary care coordination. Locum oncologists step into practices that need coverage for leave, recruitment gaps, or volume surges, and the rate reflects that complexity.
Locum oncology gives physicians more control over schedule, geography, and workload while maintaining exceptionally strong earning potential.
To exceed $750K:
Oncology locum income scales through continuity, treatment complexity, and market scarcity more than shift volume alone.
Higher locum rates create more than additional income potential. 1099 oncologists gain flexibility in how income, taxes, geography, and workload are structured over time.
While independent physicians manage their own benefits, retirement planning, and taxes, they also gain access to advantages unavailable in most employed models, including business deductions, larger retirement contribution limits, the Qualified Business Income deduction, and S-corp tax optimization at higher income levels.
For many oncologists, the larger shift is control. Schedule, treatment volume, geography, and workload become variables they can actively design around their career goals.
Most physicians do not optimize this alone. Barton partners with Earned, a wealth and tax firm built specifically for doctors, to give locum clinicians entity formation, tax planning, and long-term financial strategy designed around how physicians earn.
The advantage is not just higher rates. It is the ability to structure income and workload more intentionally over time.
Oncology / hematology has one of the longer training pipelines in medicine: internal medicine residency (3 years) followed by a hematology/oncology fellowship (3 years), with some physicians adding a year for transplant or research. First-career compensation typically begins in the late $300,000s to low $400,000s for newly fellowship-trained oncologists entering employed practice, with the Merritt Hawkins 2024 Review reporting an average starting salary of $490,000 for oncology / hematology recruiting offers.
Mid-career oncologists in community practice or private groups often reach the $500,000+ range through a combination of patient volume, ancillary revenue from in-office infusion services, and practice ownership. Late-career shifts toward advisory roles, pharma consulting, or reduced clinical load may lower gross compensation but extend career duration.
The oncology physicians who earn the most long term are often the ones who treat practice structure and treatment infrastructure as financial decisions, not defaults.
The locum industry has a baseline problem. Smaller or less established agencies routinely cut corners that cost physicians real time and real money: credentialing delays that push start dates, licensing gaps that leave physicians exposed, malpractice coverage that turns out to be less than it looked, and invoices that drag on after the assignment ends.
Barton Associates differentiates on three verified features.
a reliable locum partner shows up in the moments when something goes wrong. Ask any agency how it handles a credentialing delay, a clinical concern at a site, or a mid-assignment malpractice question. The answer separates established partners from everything else.
Barton coordinates your job search from start to finish!
We’ll schedule a phone consultation to discuss your interests, goals, and work history to find the right opportunities.
Your Barton rep will submit your information to the facility you want to take an assignment at and work on next steps.
Barton handles licensing, credentialing, and travel arrangements before you arrive so you’re ready on day one.
Most earn between $472K and $502K annually depending on practice structure and patient volume.
~$236/hr W-2, $375–$500/hr locum.
Often yes, especially in underserved and high-complexity treatment markets.
Infusion volume, community practice structure, and ancillary revenue participation.
Yes. Rising cancer incidence and a constrained training pipeline continue tightening supply.
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