...wait, so it's possible to be paid 60k total as an MD/PhD??? WTF? I thought all MDs made at least 100k.
Yep, I agree with that response. But to put things into perspective, a salary ~$60K would only apply to fellows. Fellowship is usually 1-2 years. After that, the payscale goes up significantly.
Also, if you choose a clinical fellowship for subspecialty board certification, expect even lower fellow salaries, amounting to the PGY5 level (post graduate year 5, or 5th yr resident). Of course, this is the case for straight MD's, too. But no one goes around saying, "MD's only get paid $50K/yr!?" This is because fellowship is considered part of training, after which payscale goes up a lot.
Clinical subspecialties in psychiatry include things like child psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, substance abuse, geriatrics and neuropsychiatry. All of these subspecialties pay at the PGY 5 level (except child, where you can short track after yr 3, so first year you'll get paid a PGY4 salary), which is only a couple thousand $ more than your PGY4 salary in residency. This ranges from $50-70K depending on the cost of living of where you live. The thinking is that upon subspecialty board certification, your salary will be higher (by ~10K at many academic insitutions; in PP, subspeciatly certification is often simply just needed to really practice, though in some cases, your salary won't change with or without it), so you don't need to be paid a lot as a fellow. But they don't say that. What they'll say is that since you're not subspecialty board-certified at the time of training and are still learning about the subspecialty, you get paid at the indentured servant income.
Don't do MD/PhD for the money. I hope I've underscored that.
True.
But if you're considering academia, it's not a bad idea to plan your financial future. It's much easier to accept academic salaries (including a possible need for fellowship) if you don't have $200K in loans to pay. Okay, now I know colleagues who'll have to pay almost $1,000/month upon graduation from residency. If that were happening to me, yes, I'd be signed on to just about any private practice job right now!
An assistant professor in neurology at Penn makes less than 100k? That is pretty surprising. I had thought more in the ballpark of ~120k.
Several years ago, assistant professors in psychiatry at "top tier" programs got paid as little as $85K/yr. More recently, the average at top tier programs is more like $120-130K.
Yes, IMO, chairmen are correct in that you shouldn't select a job for money. I totally agree with that. I actually enjoy what I do, and I can't wait to get paid even $100K/yr, which sounds fabulous! At the same time, I get very tired of hearing chairmen talk about how money isn't important, when we all know very well they're getting paid ~$300K/yr and they rarely have family members on our career paths.
My take: Don't put up with $60K/yr post residency if you are an MD/PhD. Find a way to get an 80/20 job (whether it's an (elevated) postdoc or some other variety of "junior faculty") while getting paid at least $80K/yr. At the same time, don't become seduced into a job with less than 80/20 research/clinical time if you're serious about research. Even if the salary will undoubtedly be higher with more clinical work, you won't have enough time to do basic or translational research. Lastly, shop around. If you give the impression you're staying at a program no matter what, you'll be taken advantage of. I don't blame chairs on this. If you can pay someone $60K/yr, why would you pay him $100K/yr? We're in an economic crisis, after all...
). 
