Yes. I have looked into this in great detail and I’ll say at least pre-covid the numbers suggest different. Go look at the EM salary surveys. Our incomes have gone way up. when I finished residency a non desireable high paying job (non locums) was 160-180/hr. I made significant less than that due to being at a good site on a partnership track. That same exact job is now paying 240 and other jobs in the same area of AZ can make 240-270/hr.
So my premise is EM docs did not on average make 350k/yr in 2004.
This is for academic jobs which back then were real academic jobs and not some HCA nonsense.
Reported salaries for full-time emergency medicine residency faculty continue to rise overall but fell for the first time in one region (the Midwest). Academic rank continues to correlate directly with salary. Fellowship training continues to show a negative correlation with salary. Significant...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Mean salary 189k. Today would be higher since many are really academic in name only as they are just clinicians with little if any protected time.
The best I could find was the ACEP Survey.. 2014 avg EM hourly looks like it is around $200/hr or less
2014–2015 Job Market for Emergency Physicians Part 2: Compensation Report
www.acepnow.com
Today EM docs are making 350-380k depending on the survey you look at. I would say it’s not hard to find a job in the 230-250/hr. Are we keeping up with inflation? Nope… But its not like we dont make good money.. Should we be paid more? For sure.. but it’s hard to say we are struggling with a straight face.
One thing I will point out.. the new crop of docs graduating residency are not only more likely to fail their boards but many dont want to work a lot of hours. Be it fear of burn out.. or whatever. When i finished a group of us worked a job working a required minimum of 144 and i averaged 160hours plus and the couple of other guys with me worked around 180 hours a month. This was at very high acuity hospitals. Today docs think it is near abuse to work over 120 hours a month. I think the most likely reason the salary survey will be off (which i still think will severely crash EM pay) is that the young docs wont want to work a bunch of hours.