It's that time of year again- Let's compare our finances to other specialties!! MedScape's annual survey is here.

[gbwillner]

We are not doing too bad, IMO...

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[deleted314957]

I don’t get Medscape so I can’t see the data but as i’ve said before, i just do NOT believe ANY of these salary surveys.
i wouldn’t respond (as many don’t) and if i did i’d poor mouth. society already thinks docs make too much.

 

[coroner]

Even taking these surveys with a grain of salt, the good news for physicians is incomes are going up. Despite the complaining about declining reimbursements, the principles of inflation applies to health care and medicine as it does for any job sector. Take a look at the same survey from over a decade ago, all of the lower income specialties were not cracking 200K/yr. Now, every one of these specialties makes 200K+.

Medscape physician compensation report 2010

The 2021 report states: '12% of specialists state their income will never return to pre-Covid levels'...??? Never is a long time, I wonder why they would expect that unless it's just doom-and-gloom about declining reimbursement or they went part time/retired during Covid. It's highly unlikely any specialist who took an income reduction due to Covid would not return to their prior level if they planned on working at the same pace for more than a few years, even more so if they worked 5-10+ years.

i just do NOT believe ANY of these salary surveys.
i wouldn’t respond (as many don’t) and if i did i’d poor mouth. society already thinks docs make too much.

I would agree with taking those surveys with a grain of salt. They're more of a gauge than anything. But, I don't think it's as extreme as they're all complete b.s. and everybody's lying. When I do report my salary, I actually give an accurate number. They are anonymous (supposedly, but is anything really anonymous these days) and it's not like your lab tech is going to find out what you reported on a random online survey anymore than knowing your W-2. I don't think poor mouthing one random survey would be statistically significant enough to change society's opinion whether doctors earn too much or not. If anything, I would probably overreport, because it would benefit our physician colleagues under employed models if CEO's realize how much we should be making. Not that, that would necessarily be statistically significant either, but I would think hospital administrators pay more attention to these types of salary surveys when recruiting physicians, than "Joe Public" who thinks docs make too much.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

I am seeing a lot of older doctors retiring after making a killing in the last year. Salaries should be going up due to competition to replace all the retirees.

 

[deleted314957]

Well, salaries are NOT going up over the long haul. They boil the frog and then let it cool a bit and everyone is happy. If I was asked in 1992 ( or 1993-2006)what I made and 1. answered the question and 2. Said what i really made ( and by implication my partners and any other “ successful “ owner operators) it would have stoked outrage. I have ZERO motivation to rise above the radar more than an MD already is. I live in the first house I bought right out of the USN on an upper middle class street ( think engineers, accountants, insurance,vp’s in smaller outfits and a couple up and comers passing thru to the exclusive neighborhoods. )I am the multimillionaire next door and not a soul around here knows it. I love it.

 

[tiredguy]

Well, salaries are NOT going up over the long haul. They boil the frog and then let it cool a bit and everyone is happy. If I was asked in 1992 ( or 1993-2006)what I made and 1. answered the question and 2. Said what i really made ( and by implication my partners and any other “ successful “ owner operators) it would have stoked outrage. I have ZERO motivation to rise above the radar more than an MD already is.

Smart. This is key. Stay under the radar.

 

[coroner]

I have ZERO motivation to rise above the radar more than an MD already is. I live in the first house I bought right out of the USN on an upper middle class street ( think engineers, accountants, insurance,vp’s in smaller outfits and a couple up and comers passing thru to the exclusive neighborhoods. )I am the multimillionaire next door and not a soul around here knows it. I love it.

Good book. You fit the description of a "PAW" (Prodigious accumumulator of wealth)-type of doctor that doesn't overspend and lives by ordinary means... which is the path to wealth.

Same house for, I'm guessing around 30-35 years? You are the Warren Buffet of pathology! Do you also drive a 10-year old Cadillac and have breakfast at McDonalds every morning? Lol...

 

[shikimate]

Pathology is not as well compensated as some other specialties in USA, but compared to other English-speaking countries, USA compensation is fair. For example, NHS in UK publishes their salary tiers, and converted to USD, the pay is much lower. In Canada, salary is mostly uniform, so it's good for junior pathologists, but for seniors, they don't necessarily get any better, perhaps except more vacation time etc. Not sure for Australia, but published figures, converted to USD, suggest it might only be marginally higher than some reported figures from USA (remember Canada and Australia has much higher cost of living than many places in USA)

 

[coroner]

The U.S. has the highest compensated physicians in the world on average (1-year stints in UAE for expats don't count). It almost needs to be since we also have the highest health care costs in the world.

 

[k_sheep]

UAE pay didn't look great when I was looking? But it's hard to get concrete numbers with all the packages.

So I'm curious now how much pathologists earn in different countries. In Australia it starts at about (AUD) $300k per year, the majority sort of end up at 400 with only relatively few joining partnerships (or starting their own labs) and earning 500+. Of course there's the top tax tier of 49% to contend with too.

 

[shikimate]

Canadian payscale is included in most job ads, the range can be from 300K to 400K CAD, or about 240K to 320K USD. There are outliers out there when they're under a special arrangement such as fee for service etc. Since CAD and AUD are similar, I think pay in Canada is comparable to Australia.

Of note both Canada and Australia have high housing prices and high marginal taxes.