Starting the job hunt. Have a question for attendings. What % of your hourly wage goes to 'benefits'.
i.e. I get an offer at $225 an hour, how much of this is typically locked down in benefits and insurance, and how much is actual take-home spending money? Really couldn't find a lot of information on this despite multiple google and SDN searches, which surprised me.
Very practical question.
This is something you can sometimes get out of the SDG/CMG directly. I've had CMGs say "we pay $x an hour, but with our benefit package valued at $y an hour, so your actual wage is $z which is actually $x - $y an hour."
Sometimes, it's easier to do some rough math yourself if unclear. Just to use a round number, you could have somewhere paying $200/hr which is low for some parts of the country, but which approaches the maximum discretionary 401(k) contributions per the IRS between elective, profit sharing, etc (no more than $54,000 between corporate and individual contributions combined; if based on total compensation, using a limit of up to $270,000 to calculate in 2017). In other words, you could theoretically have a company contributing $40,000+ to a 401(k) on your behalf without your own contributions -- which, depending on your hours, works out to somewhere between $25-$35/hr extra which is already squirreled away for your retirement without you doing anything, and without matching. Just pre-tax money like your hourly rate, but earmarked for retirement.
Whatever your place does for retirement can be calculated out.
It should be trivial to find out how much a typical health insurance premium is which can easily be converted to $/hr. Malpractice, which should always be paid for you, can be similarly estimated.
In my experience with firsthand numbers, and with deferral to the more experienced attendings here, places frequently offer benefit packages worth between $10-$25/hr. The more benefit-heavy places, $25-$40/hr.
I've done this a few times to make apples to apples comparisons across very different work environments.
You tend to end up paying for it in one way or another -- lower hourly rate or what have you.
