Compensation benchmarking tools for healthcare: 10 options compared

Quick picks by use case

• Physician and APP comp plans, FMV support: MGMA DataDive, SullivanCotter or AMGA. Many organizations license two and compare.
• Health system executive pay: SullivanCotter, with AMGA as a source for medical group leadership roles.
• Hospital staff and RN pay practices (differentials, on-call, per diem premiums): SullivanCotter's staff and RN surveys, or Salary.com's healthcare survey.
• Salary ranges for every department, with merit and pay equity workflow: Payscale or Salary.com.
• Talent supply, hiring demand and skills: Lightcast or LinkedIn Talent Insights.
• Company-level headcount and talent flows: Revelio Labs.
• A free cross-check: BLS OEWS.
• Travel, per diem and contract pay and bill rates: ClinicalRate.

How to choose compensation benchmarking software

No single tool covers every healthcare population. Score each candidate against the questions you actually need answered:

1. Role match depth. Does the taxonomy separate jobs you pay differently, such as ICU and med-surg nurses, or cardiology subspecialties? Ask how job titles are mapped and what happens to records that don't match cleanly.
2. Population. Employed staff, per diem, travel, locum tenens, academic and community settings are different markets. Check which ones the data actually contains.
3. Data source. Employer-reported surveys, employee-reported pay, advertised pay in job postings, modeled estimates and contract or placement records each measure something different. None is wrong; mixing them without knowing is.
4. Refresh cadence and effective date. Ask when the data was collected, not just when it was published. Annual surveys typically describe the prior year.
5. Geography and sample size. National, regional, state or metro cuts, and the minimum sample the vendor requires before showing a number.
6. Contingent economics. If you buy or sell agency labor, you need bill rates and contract pay, not just salaries. See bill rate vs pay rate.
7. Productivity data. Physician comp plans need wRVUs and comp-per-wRVU next to pay, which only the physician surveys provide.
8. Governance acceptance. Will your comp committee, auditors and fair market value advisers accept the source by name? For physician and executive pay, this often decides the question.
9. Workflow or data. Do you need software that builds ranges and runs merit cycles, or numbers delivered into your own models through an API or warehouse?
10. Access and cost. Participation discounts, modules, seats and API terms vary widely. Ask for a sample cut for your own roles and markets before buying.

Compensation benchmarking tools compared at a glance

A qualitative summary. Products and modules vary, so confirm specifics with each vendor. Each tool is covered in more detail below.

The pattern: surveys win on governance and physician depth, HR software wins on workflow, labor-market analytics win on breadth and supply, BLS wins on cost, and live rate data wins on contingent pricing. Most healthcare organizations end up with two or three of these, not one.

1. MGMA DataDive

What it is

The Medical Group Management Association sells provider compensation and productivity benchmarks through DataDive, its online platform. The Provider Compensation data set covers physicians and advanced practice providers, with subsets for academic faculty, medical directorships, on-call rates and starting salaries. MGMA also sells a Management and Staff data set that includes hourly rates for practice staff positions.

Best for

Medical groups and health systems designing physician and APP comp plans, and documenting fair market value. MGMA positions the data as a source to support FMV review.

Data source and refresh

A survey of participating organizations, published annually. MGMA's 2024 report, for example, reflected 2023 data on more than 211,000 physicians and APPs.

Healthcare depth

Deep for physicians and APPs: specialty and subspecialty cuts by region and practice type, with wRVUs, collections and compensation-to-productivity ratios alongside pay.

Contingent and bill rates

Built around employed providers. On-call and directorship stipends are covered; locum tenens contracts and agency bill rates are not.

Access

Paid. DataDive access is a separate purchase and isn't included with individual MGMA membership; MGMA offers discounts on some bundled data sets. Prices aren't listed publicly, so check with MGMA.

Keep in mind: the annual cycle means data describes a period already behind you, and nursing and allied roles sit largely outside the provider data set. More in MGMA salary data explained and ClinicalRate vs MGMA.

2. SullivanCotter

What it is

A healthcare compensation consulting firm that runs an annual suite of surveys: Physician Compensation and Productivity, Advanced Practice Provider Compensation and Productivity, Health Care Management and Executive Compensation, and Health Care Staff Compensation, plus a separate Registered Nursing Compensation Survey.

Best for

Health systems that need physician, APP and executive benchmarks for comp committees and boards, and hospitals benchmarking employed staff and RN pay practices.

Data source and refresh

Participant-submitted survey data, published annually. In 2026 the staff survey was published in July and the RN survey in October.

Healthcare depth

Deep across physicians (with productivity), APPs and executives. The staff survey covers more than 800 clinical and nonclinical jobs along with pay practices such as shift differentials, on-call, charge, per diem and float pool pay. The RN survey breaks out hourly base and total cash compensation by region, state, organization size, job level and experience.

Contingent and bill rates

Employed workforce. Per diem and float premiums paid to employees are covered; travel contract packages and agency bill rates are not.

Access

Reports are bought per survey, with lower prices for participants. SullivanCotter publishes prices on its survey pages: for 2026, the staff and RN surveys were each listed at $1,350 for participants and $5,400 for healthcare nonparticipants. The national staff report includes the 200 most prevalent jobs, with other benchmarks priced as modules.

Keep in mind: it's an annual instrument designed for governance, which is its strength for executive and physician pay and its limit for anything that reprices weekly. See ClinicalRate vs SullivanCotter.

3. AMGA Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey

What it is

The American Medical Group Association's long-running survey of provider pay and productivity, offered through AMGA Consulting, which also provides compensation advisory work.

Best for

Multispecialty medical groups and integrated delivery systems, and as a second physician source alongside MGMA or SullivanCotter.

Data source and refresh

Data submitted by participating medical groups, published as an annual report that reflects the prior year's data.

Healthcare depth

AMGA cites data on nearly 188,000 providers across 451 medical groups, covering 181 physician and advanced practice clinician specialties plus 145 APC subspecialties, and salary and bonus data for 48 leadership roles. The online version filters by specialty, group type, region and years of service.

Contingent and bill rates

Employed providers in medical groups. No contract pay or bill rates.

Access

Provider organizations, non-provider organizations and corporate entities can buy the online report; only providers can buy print. AMGA members get discounted pricing, and participating groups receive custom benchmarks and online access. Check AMGA for current prices.

Keep in mind: results reflect the medical groups that chose to participate, so check that the participant mix by group type and region resembles your own peer group.

4. Payscale

What it is

Compensation management software. Its products include Payfactors and Marketpay for market pricing and survey management, Paycycle for merit and increase cycles, and JobNav for job architecture.

Best for

HR and comp teams building salary structures and running merit and pay equity cycles across every department, clinical and nonclinical.

Data source and refresh

A mix of employee-reported pay (formerly called crowdsourced data), employer-reported data from participating organizations' HR systems, and third-party surveys that customers license and load into the platform. Payscale describes some of its own datasets as updated weekly; loaded surveys keep their own publication cycles.

Healthcare depth

Health systems are among its customers, but clinical roles are one part of a cross-industry job catalog. Specialty depth depends on which datasets and surveys you license.

Contingent and bill rates

Employed compensation. Travel packages and agency bill rates are out of scope.

Access

Software subscription through Payscale's sales team. Prices aren't published; check with Payscale.

Keep in mind: you're buying a workflow as much as data, which is the point if you run enterprise comp cycles. See ClinicalRate vs Payscale.

5. Salary.com (CompAnalyst)

What it is

CompAnalyst is Salary.com's compensation platform, sold with CompAnalyst Market Data and a library of surveys, including a US healthcare survey that grew out of its Compdata line.

Best for

Hospitals and health systems that want employed-staff benchmarks with healthcare-specific pay practices inside a comp software platform.

Data source and refresh

CompAnalyst Market Data is HR-reported data that Salary.com builds from many commercially available surveys plus machine learning, and it says the database is updated monthly. A higher tier adds job-posting data. Survey products follow their own schedules, so confirm the cycle for any survey you buy.

Healthcare depth

The healthcare survey covers per diem and PRN pay, shift differentials and on-call and call-back pay, with filters such as revenue, bed count, teaching status and custom hospital peer groups. Some state hospital associations offer it to members.

Contingent and bill rates

Per diem and PRN pay for employees is covered. Travel contracts and agency bill rates are not.

Access

Software subscription, with surveys sold separately and participant pricing on some. Check with Salary.com or your hospital association for current terms.

Keep in mind: like Payscale, its clinical coverage is strongest for employed hospital roles, and specialty granularity depends on the underlying surveys.

6. Lightcast

What it is

A labor-market analytics company (formed from Emsi and Burning Glass Technologies) built on job postings, professional profiles and government statistics. Its Analyst products include Talent Analyst and Staffing Analyst, a version aimed at staffing firms, and it offers APIs.

Best for

Workforce planning, supply and demand analysis, skills gaps and site selection, and staffing firms sizing markets and talent pools.

Data source and refresh

Lightcast's compensation model uses BLS occupational wages as its backbone and layers in wages from job postings. It documents posting data as refreshed monthly and the government wage data annually. Advertised salary appears only where postings include it, and that share varies by role and market.

Healthcare depth

Healthcare is a large share of any postings dataset, organized by occupation and skills taxonomies. You can filter postings by title, skill and keyword, but specialty depth depends on how postings are written.

Contingent and bill rates

Postings of all employment types are included; contract economics and bill rates are not modeled.

Access

Enterprise subscription and API through a demo with Lightcast. Prices aren't published.

Keep in mind: it answers “how many, where, and with what skills” better than “what should this ICU contract pay.” See ClinicalRate vs Lightcast.

7. Revelio Labs

What it is

A workforce intelligence company that builds datasets from public professional profiles, job postings, employee reviews and layoff notices, then models headcount, hiring, attrition and pay at the company level.

Best for

Investors, corporate strategy teams and researchers tracking competitor workforces and talent flows.

Data source and refresh

Salaries are modeled, not reported: Revelio predicts pay for each position from attributes such as job title and tenure, using a model trained on visa application data, self-reported data and job postings. Its job postings and workforce dynamics datasets update weekly.

Healthcare depth

Cross-industry. Profile-based data sees long-lived employment well; short contingent assignments are harder to observe.

Contingent and bill rates

No bill rates, and limited visibility into travel and per diem assignments.

Access

API, bulk data feeds and the Revelio Terminal. A free trial is offered; check with Revelio for pricing.

Keep in mind: it is a company-level tool. It tells you how a competitor's workforce is changing more reliably than what a role pays in a metro this week. See ClinicalRate vs Revelio Labs.

8. LinkedIn Talent Insights

What it is

An analytics product built on LinkedIn member profile and jobs data, offering talent pool reports, company reports and skills trends. It works alongside LinkedIn Recruiter.

Best for

Talent acquisition teams sizing talent pools, tracking competitor hiring and planning locations.

Data source and refresh

LinkedIn profiles and jobs. Talent pool reports can show an estimated average total compensation and range, derived from LinkedIn salary data including pay that employers add to job posts. LinkedIn's help pages say this appears only for US, Canada and UK locations and is hidden when too few people in the pool have pay data. Refresh cadence isn't published.

Healthcare depth

Depends on who keeps a current profile, which can under-represent bedside nurses and allied clinicians who find work through agencies and job boards.

Contingent and bill rates

Focused on employed talent pools; no bill rates.

Access

Sold through LinkedIn's sales team, with cost depending on scope. No published prices.

Keep in mind: the pay view is an average and range for a talent pool, not a percentile benchmark for a matched job, so treat it as context rather than a pay source. See ClinicalRate vs LinkedIn Talent Insights.

9. BLS OEWS (free)

What it is

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program: employment and wage estimates for about 830 occupations, from a survey of employers.

Best for

A free, defensible cross-check on broad occupational wages, budgeting, and grant or public-sector work.

Data source and refresh

A survey of roughly 1.1 million establishments collected over three years, published annually with a May reference period. The May 2025 estimates were released on May 15, 2026, a full year after the reference date.

Healthcare depth

Percentiles from the 10th to the 90th by occupation for the nation, states and about 530 metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. But every registered nurse specialty shares one occupation code (29-1141), so ICU, ER and OR nurses can't be separated. Some advanced practice roles, such as nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists, have their own codes.

Contingent and bill rates

Covers wage and salary workers only, excludes the self-employed, and has no contract package or bill rate detail.

Access

Free public download from bls.gov.

Keep in mind: the price is right, but specialty blindness and lag make it a sanity check rather than a primary source for clinical pay decisions.

10. ClinicalRate

What it is

Live pay and bill rate data for 428 canonical clinical roles across nursing, allied health, advanced practice and physician, by state and metro, split by travel, per diem, local contract and permanent work.

Best for

Staffing agencies, MSPs and hospitals pricing contingent clinical labor, and health systems deciding whether a staff pay adjustment is cheaper than continued agency spend.

Data source and refresh

Nine source classes, including job-board feeds where reuse is permitted, contributing staffing agencies, VMS ingests and public data. Rates refresh every business day as empirical percentiles over a trailing 30-day window, and every figure shows its sample size and as-of date. The full method is on the methodology page.

Healthcare depth

Specialty-level roles (ICU, ER and OR nurses are separate roles), with each employment type kept in its own distribution.

Contingent and bill rates

Core focus. Pay rates and bill rates for travel, per diem, contract and permanent work.

Access

UI, read API and warehouse share on one published plan: $2,500 a month, billed monthly, cancel anytime.

Where ClinicalRate is the wrong tool, or not enough on its own:

• Physician comp plans and FMV. It has no wRVU or productivity data and isn't a substitute for the surveys that comp committees and FMV advisers name in their policies.
• Executive and nonclinical pay. Neither is covered.
• Comp workflow. It doesn't build salary structures, run merit cycles or track pay equity.
• Benefits and total rewards. It measures pay and bill rates, not benefits.
• Thin markets. Where fewer than 30 observations exist, percentiles are suppressed rather than shown.
• Advertised vs paid. Posting-derived figures are advertised rates, and travel postings may quote a blended hourly figure that includes stipends.
• Cost for occasional use. A practice that needs one physician benchmark a year will usually spend less on a survey report.

Common tool combinations in healthcare

• Health system comp team: SullivanCotter (or another healthcare survey) for physicians, executives and staff, an HR platform such as Payscale or Salary.com for range management, BLS as a free cross-check, and live contingent data to see how far agency rates sit above staff pay.
• Physician group: MGMA, SullivanCotter or AMGA, often two of them, for comp plans and FMV support. See MGMA salary data explained.
• Staffing agency or MSP: current pay and bill rates by role and metro for pricing, plus labor-market analytics such as Lightcast if you also need supply and demand. See ClinicalRate for agencies.
• Small practice or clinic on a budget: BLS OEWS for staff roles plus a single physician survey report when a provider contract comes up.

Whatever you combine, document which source fed which decision. The compensation benchmarking guide covers blending and weighting sources step by step.

Frequently asked questions