About LocumRates

You deserve to know what the market actually pays, not what an agency tells you it pays. Physicians spend a decade in training before earning an independent paycheck. By the time you're negotiating a locum assignment, you've already given years of nights, weekends, and personal sacrifice to become competent at something genuinely difficult.

LocumRates was built by a General Surgery physician who went looking for reliable locum rate data and found industry surveys buried behind agency registration forms and outdated forum posts. This site is the resource that should have existed.

There is no agency referral fee, no data harvesting, and no funnel. The toolkit exists because the free tool has limits: if you want the full rate tables and negotiation playbook, it's there. If you just need the benchmark number, the evaluator is free and always will be.

Sincerely, — one of the nicer general surgeons.

What We Publish

Rate benchmarks for 20 physician specialties across four US regions and two practice settings: urban hospital and rural critical access. Each specialty shows 25th percentile, median, and 75th percentile hourly rates.

Where the Data Comes From

Estimates are built from BLS OEWS physician wage data and CMS geographic adjustment factors, processed through a locum-adjusted model, calibrated and validated against publicly posted rates and observations. Source data is updated annually.

A Few Honest Caveats

These are estimates, not guarantees. Your actual rate depends on your negotiation, the agency, and the facility.
Regional averages mask real variation. NYC and upstate New York are not the same market.
Rates move faster than annual updates. Use this as a baseline, not a ceiling.

Contact

Questions about the data, methodology, or a toolkit purchase: contact@locumrates.org