Military Pay

[erkin777]

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I am considering the health professions scholarship program with one of the military branches. Does anyone know how much a military physician makes after completing residency, but while completing the 4 year payback period.

 

[dctrben]

Erkin,

From what I have gathered in my research into the same subject, your incentive pay will vary. As I understand it, you will get a monthly incentive that is dependant upon your specialty. This is on top of your base pay, of course (which for a Captain, or O-3, will be probably around $3700 per month) and your food and housing allowances. The food allowance is a flat rate the is around $150 a month and housing depends on where you live but should be around $900.

As I understand it, while repaying your scholarship you are not entitled to any of the "stay in" incentives and are only eligible for the specialty incentives. The base pay will only go up as lobbyist continue to pressure Congress to close the pay gap between military and civilian people. The housing allowance is based on the cost of living so that will vary greatly. I hope this helps, their really is no way of predicting exactly what you will make at that time.

Ben

 

[Stickboy]

Erkin-

Here's a link to the Navy's site about special pays for physicians (It will be essentially the same for all branches of the military:

<a href="http://navymedicine.med.navy.mil/med52/med-525/mcspcpay.htm" target="_blank">http://navymedicine.med.navy.mil/med52/med-525/mcspcpay.htm</a>

This link is to a "Provider Satisfaction Survey" which was an awesome report of the goods and others of military medicine. Included is a chart that shows the disparity of civilian vs. military pay at the 7 and 12th years of service:

<a href="http://navymedicine.med.navy.mil/med00mc/Archives/Archives%20web%20info.htm" target="_blank">http://navymedicine.med.navy.mil/med00mc/Archives/Archives%20web%20info.htm</a>

In general, you'll make about twice as much as a comparable civilian during residency, but then be dwarfed by civilian salaries once residency is over (of course you won't have any debt, either...)

Hope this helps, but remember to consider *all* the benefits and challenges of military medicine, not just the money 🙂

Cheers,
-sb