Academic compensation yearly increase

[Jack Marcos]

Hello all,

Just wondering if anyone has any insight into salary growth due to experience for surgeons (neuro, ortho and general). For example, what increases in salary would one of these surgeons expect to see 5,10,20 years into their career in an academic setting? Just curious about how much experience plays a role in this.

thanks

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[IMGASMD]

Hello all,

Just wondering if anyone has any insight into salary growth due to experience for surgeons (neuro, ortho and general). For example, what increases in salary would one of these surgeons expect to see 5,10,20 years into their career in an academic setting? Just curious about how much experience plays a role in this.

thanks

Too many factors. Is the surgeon academic only, hospital employee, hybrid? Academic rank? Private practice but taking calls with the hospital? Stipend from?

Straight up academia? May get increase from assistant to associate to full. But you need to produce to move up. You may get a yearly inflation increase, but I don’t think you’re asking for that.

 

[efle]

I think a lot of private groups are structured differently than a traditional corporate career.

For example, a private group could hire someone on a partner track for 300-400k/yr for 2-3 years, then make them partner and their salary jumps to 600k. Fast forward 10 years, and unless the practice has grown or changed volume a lot, the salaries will still look similar. Very different than a classic corporate structure where you're up for promotions and raises every few years and someone with 5 years and 20 years are paid differently.

For academics there is more of a hierarchy but still not a clear financial promotion system. Earning a professorship/tenure is less about money and more about security. Big paychecks can be found for leadership roles in big hospital systems, but not everyone is interested in pursuing that kind of work, many just want to do their cases and their research. Location / which academic center you're at also has a big role, since the brand names in attractive cities pay very poorly.

 

[Jack Marcos]

I think a lot of private groups are structured differently than a traditional corporate career.

For example, a private group could hire someone on a partner track for 300-400k/yr for 2-3 years, then make them partner and their salary jumps to 600k. Fast forward 10 years, and unless the practice has grown or changed volume a lot, the salaries will still look similar. Very different than a classic corporate structure where you're up for promotions and raises every few years and someone with 5 years and 20 years are paid differently.

For academics there is more of a hierarchy but still not a clear financial promotion system. Earning a professorship/tenure is less about money and more about security. Big paychecks can be found for leadership roles in big hospital systems, but not everyone is interested in pursuing that kind of work, many just want to do their cases and their research. Location / which academic center you're at also has a big role, since the brand names in attractive cities pay very poorly.

Very helpful, thanks. just curious, what exactly do you mean about brand name academic centers paying poorly? What is an example of a brand name academic center.

 

[efle]

Very helpful, thanks. just curious, what exactly do you mean about brand name academic centers paying poorly? What is an example of a brand name academic center.

For example the Harvard hospitals in Boston (e.g. Mass General, the Brigham) are notorious for low pay, especially if you were to compare to big academic centers in settings like the midwest or south (e.g. Michigan, WashU, Mayo, Duke).

And across the board, academics tend to pay much worse than private practice. In some specialties like the one I'm applying (radiology) it can be 1.5-2x higher in private.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I don’t know what kind of surgeon you are talking about but the Orthopaedic program director for my school makes 1.5m a year. He is obviously an outlier, but there is definitely money to be made in academia if you work yourself up.