Ah the good old I didn't read the thread but I am going to vomit out a hot take anyways. I never once said to "live like a resident" when you become an attending. In fact I said it is a good idea to immediately give yourself a 100% pay raise (double your take home pay) to get some immediate gratification for finishing residency/fellowship.
The match rate for family medicine is like >99% for domestic medical graduates so the madness over not matching into your desired specialty is very real, but NEVER matching is not a realistic fear. We all worry about it for sure, even if it is super unlikely, but it is an irrational fear. Failing out would suck but that goes for any graduate or undergraduate degree.
I also never said that medical school debt was fair or appropriate or should not be lower. All I argued that was that medical school debt is not the doom and gloom that a lot of people make it out to be. Should medical school be more heavily subsidized by the government? Hell yeah it should. Should the loans be 0-2% like they are in basically every other Western country? Yep. The concept that the government makes profit off loans to educate its own citizens is disgusting. They should be losing money on our loans due to inflation!!! That is how it works in all of Europe and Canada.
It is really ridiculous to be so out of touch with the minimum wage that you honestly think residents are "lucky to be making minimum wage is residency." You have either never worked a low-wage job and/or are parroting a common anecdote medical students and residents say. A PGY-1 in Texas makes like $55k pre-tax. You would have to work
145 hours per week to earn that much while making minimum wage ($7.25) or 154 hour/week if you get the 3 weeks vacation most residents do, even no minimum wage worker is getting vacation time. Tons of states have a minimum wage of $7.25/hr. Some states have a minimum wage in the $9-12/hr range. PGY-1 salaries in those states are normally like $60k. To make $60k in Maryland with their minimum wage of $12/hour, you would need work 96hr/week with no vacation, 102hrs/week with 3 weeks vacation. Then there are the states and individual cities with that juicy $15/hr minimum wage. To make less than than minimum wage in these states as a PGY-1 making $60k, you would need to work 76hrs/week with no vacation, or 81hrs/week with 3 weeks vacation. Here is a chart:
Minimum wage, PGY-1 salary | Hrs/wk need to make less than min wage (no vacation) | Hrs/wk needed with 3 weeks vacation |
$7.25/hr, $55k salary | 145 hours/week | 154 hours/week |
$12/hr, $60k salary | 96 hours/week | 102 hours/week |
$15/hr, $60k salary | 76 hours/week | 81 hours/week |
So yes, some PGY-1 residents working in LA, DC, SF, and Seattle might approach the minimum wage if they are going over 80hrs/week. But that combination of things is not common. Very few residencies average >80hrs/week over an entire year, even less so if you restrict it to a few cities (the
state minimum wage in NY and CA is like $12.50-$14).
Now let's be clear, I think that residents should make at least as much as NP/PA's. There is really no economic argument against this, other than hospitals' profit margins combined with 0 bargaining power on the part of residents. But "you are lucky if you are making minimum wage in residency" is some impressive hyperbole.