Some states show a gap of $600,000 or more between the lowest and highest advertised anesthesiologist salaries in the same market, according to Q1 2026 data from BagMask.com.
Here are the states with the widest spreads between advertised minimums and maximums:
| State | Lowest minimum | Highest maximum | Spread |
| Arizona | $350,000 | $1,000,000 | $650,000 |
| Indiana | $300,000 | $1,000,000 | $700,000 |
| Illinois | $300,000 | $975,000 | $675,000 |
| California | $330,000 | $950,000 | $620,000 |
| Nevada | $400,000 | $950,000 | $550,000 |
| Missouri | $400,000 | $900,000 | $500,000 |
| Alaska | $800,000 | $900,000 | $100,000 |
Here are four things to know:
1. Arizona and Indiana both posted advertised maximums of $1 million in Q1 2026, the highest in the country, while their floors sat at $350,000 and $300,000 respectively. That $650,000-$700,000 internal spread reflects the mix of standard employed positions and specialized or heavy-call roles being marketed simultaneously within the same state.
2. Illinois and California round out the top tier, each with spreads exceeding $600,000. Both states have large urban health systems posting competitive baseline offers alongside outlier postings tied to trauma coverage, subspecialty roles or aggressive recruitment packages, which is pulling the ceiling far above the average.
3. BagMask notes that the highest advertised figures often represent positions with heavy call obligations or specialized surgical team requirements rather than standard employed roles. In high-spread states, a posting at or near the maximum is rarely an apples-to-apples comparison to one near the floor.
4. Wide spreads are also partly a function of salary transparency laws. States like California, Illinois and Nevada require employers to post pay ranges, which produces more data points, and more visible variation, than states where ranges go unpublished. The spread in those markets may reflect reality more accurately than it does in states with narrower disclosed ranges simply because less is being reported.