Physician Salary in South Carolina (2026)

Worth knowing: MUSC Charleston (Medical University of South Carolina) is the only OR academic medical center in the state and a feature most national physician-compensation surveys understate for SC. MUSC (~14K employees across MUSC Health main campus + multiple SC outreach locations + MUSC Florence + MUSC Lancaster + MUSC Black River + MUSC Health Children's Hospital, founded 1824 as the first medical school in the South — the country's oldest continuously operating medical school in the Southeast and one of the oldest 5 US medical schools) operates substantial cardiology + cardiothoracic surgery + neurosurgery + transplant + Hollings Cancer Center (one of only 73 NCI-designated cancer centers nationally + only NCI center in SC) + Storm Eye Institute. MUSC operates the only Level 1 adult trauma center in the Lowcountry SC region. Senior MUSC surgical subspecialists clear $565K-$1.39M+ TC. Prisma Health is the largest SC health system post-2017 Greenville Health System + Palmetto Health merger (~30K combined employees + 17 hospitals across Greenville + Columbia + Upstate regions, the country's 13th-largest non-profit health system) — anchoring Upstate + Midlands SC medicine. SC joined IMLC in 2017 — supporting multi-state practice. SC's 5.21% top rate (H.4216, 2026) applies above $30,000 of SC taxable income, so it reaches nearly all senior subspecialty comp — and it is far below OR/MN's 9.85-9.9% tops — supporting senior physician retention. SC is RTW + no estate tax + low cost of living relative to medical practice peer states.