Bigger cities will have lower salaries overall compared to smaller cities. Once again, supply and demand is what controls how much someone is willing to pay a new doc to come there.
Since I just went through a job search after leaving the military, I can give some insight to the job market. There are plenty of jobs available, but you may have to be flexible about where you go. My wife and I had a fairly good idea where we wanted to end up so we concentrated on a few decent-sized Midwestern cities, but also entertained offers from a few "headhunters". Almost every offer was for at least $200k with a one-year guarantee. This is in addition to your overhead (rent, malpractice, etc). Some guarantees were all the way up to $400k. Most also offered a production bonus and you would convert to production-based pay if you overcame your guarantee during the guarantee period. Otherwise, you would switch to production-based pay at the end of your guarantee period.
In the end, I took an offer that I found on my own by writing a letter to the practices in an area that I wanted to live. Since the area was more desireable, the guarantee wasn't quite as high as some of the other offers I had, but the potential was phenomenol. Our overhead is less than 20% and the other partners bring home $400-$800k per year. I billed $120k my first month and our collection rate is about 40-50%. If I continue at that rate, I'd overcome my guarantee amount in less than 6 months. I work about 40 hours per week and take one weeknight of call during the week plus every fifth weekend.
