National Salary Data

• According to the Payscale website, an oncologist earned anywhere from $134,500 to $260,500 in October 2010.
  
  

Starting Salary

• According to the Payscale website, the average starting salary for an oncologist was anywhere between $98,500 to $242,000 in October 2010. Like other entry-level physicians, oncologists have completed at least eight years of education after high school and three to eight additional years in residency, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Residency is where graduate medical education within a specialty takes place in the form of on-the-job training, typically inside a hospital.
  
  

Specialties

• Within the oncologist specialty, subspecialties exist. According to the Physician Compensation Survey by the American Medical Group Association in 2010, gynecological oncologists earned a median salary of $413,500; hematology and medical oncologists, $321,000; and pediatric hematologists and oncologists, $212,500.
  
  

Employer Type

• The employer type can influence how much an oncologist gets paid, according to the Payscale website. Oncologists in hospitals can earn anywhere from $101,000 to $221,500; private practice/firm, $167,000 to $254,500; college and university, $152,500 to $234,000; nonprofit organization, $157,000 to $302,000; state and local government, $137,500 to $260,000; and self-employed, $98,500 to $240,000.
  
  

City

• Oncologists can be found in any major city. According to the Payscale website, oncologists in New York earned from $99,500 to $194,500; Boston, $95,000 to $200,000; Chicago, $99,000 to $203,500; Los Angeles, $113,000 to $181,500; Baltimore, $101,500 to $205,000; Atlanta, $157,000 to $205,000; and Houston, $97,500 to $168,000.