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who went looking for reliable locum rate data and found industry surveys buried behind agency registration forms and outdated forum posts.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 and no data harvesting. The evaluator is free and always will be. The paid toolkit is the deeper layer for physicians who want the full rate tables, negotiation scripts, contract protection, credentialing roadmap, and assignment playbook before they commit.

Sincerely, — one of the nicer general surgeons.

What We Publish

Rate benchmarks for 22 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

Benchmarks 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.

How to Use the Benchmarks

Start every recruiter conversation with the benchmark, your assignment-adjusted target, and your walkaway.
Match the rate to the region and setting; local markets within the same state can differ.
Price the complete assignment—workload, call, schedule, support, travel, and contract terms—not the hourly number alone.
Use the current edition. Source data is updated annually.

Contact

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