Not trying to start a war or troll, just an honest curious question...what does the salary of a psychiatrist look like through the expereinces of physicians and residents on here? How does it compare to a neurologist salary? Again, i'm not all about the money but i am curious as I am hearing many different figures on the income.
there is a much higher income potential in neurology.....more procedures, more icu work.
Nice Mortellar...way to start a flame way...
This should answer all of your questions:
http://www.medscape.com/sites/public/physician-comp/2012
Mean income Psych: $170k
Mean income Neuro: $184k (so vistaril is right, neuro averages very slightly more).
Regardless, if both fields, the most likely block to fall into is in the $200-250k range, or close to it.
The other side to this story is in the hours worked per week though.
Psych: 36% < 30h/wk, 37% < 40h/wk. That's a combined 73% who work < 40h/wk.
Neuro: 20% < 30h/wk, 25% < 40h/wk. Total = 45% work < 40h/wk.
Plugging the numbers from this chart into a spread sheet, you get the following averages.
Psych = 37 hours per week (really 37.125, but who's counting...)
Neuro = 43 hours per week. (43.09 really)
SO...the hourly income averages are as follows (yearly pay / 52 weeks / hours):
Psych = 170k/52/37 = $88.36
Neuro = 184k/52/43 = $82.29
Feel Fairly Compensated Neuro: 43%
Feel Fairly Compensated Psych: 59%
So it looks to me like Vistaril is wrong again, and psychiatrists get paid more than neurologists. A little over $6/hour more, on average.
This doesn't take into account things like subspecialty (child makes a good bit more), life style, personal interest in the field, day vs night shifts, job security, overhead of a private practice, etc.
One huge reason I went into psych, aside from my interest in the field (which should ALWAYS be your primary motivator...the money may change in any direction at any time), is the ability to start a low overhead office in psych. Probably the best field left in medicine in which to do this. If you want to own your own place, it's hard to beat, especially in child psych.
Why do we work less hours? >55% of us are >55yo. Our field has one of the oldest average ages around, and many are half retired already. There are likely other reasons, such as better insight to the importance of work/life balance, but...
Anyways...if you have an interest in psych, hang out here a while, look into the research, talk to some psychiatrists...it's a very sweet gig. You couldn't pay me enough to do neuro...