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I haven't been able to find this paper since I initially found it back in med school but physicians generally earn around the 95th percentile of income for their country in most countries. I wouldn't expect a huge change in our position relative to other countries unless there was a significant economic downturn here that somehow didn't affect the rest of the world (which is not impossible with the way Trump is going, but also the word is so interconnected that usually there are mutual effects, esp with the rest of the developed West.)
Claude Sonnet 3.7 with extended thinking and web search enabled came up with this breakdown based on a request to evaluate this statement across OECD countries:
United States
In the US, the 95th percentile threshold for household income in 2024 was $315,504
DQYDJ. With US physicians earning approximately $353,000 on average
Statista, they typically fall above the 95th percentile of household income. Specialists tend to earn significantly more, with many placing well into the top 1-2% of household incomes.
Canada
Canadian physicians earn the second-highest incomes among OECD countries at around $273,000
Statista. This places them near or above the 95th percentile of Canadian household incomes, though slightly lower on the income distribution than their American counterparts relative to their national distribution.
United Kingdom
Physician incomes in the UK are substantially lower than in North America. The differential between physician salaries and other professional salaries in the UK appears to be much smaller than in the US
Whitecoatinvestor, with physicians falling closer to the 80-90th percentile range of household incomes.
Germany, France, and Other European Countries
In most OECD countries, GPs generally earned between two and five times the average wage
Oecd-ilibrary. In countries like Germany, France, and other European nations, physicians typically fall between the 85th and 95th percentiles of household income, with significant variation by specialty and employment setting.
Australia
In Australia, physicians, particularly specialists, are well-compensated relative to the general population. In Australia, the income of self-employed specialists was at least double that of self-employed GPs
Oecd-ilibrary. Australian specialists likely fall in the 92-98th percentile range of household incomes.
Nordic Countries
In Nordic countries with more compressed income distributions, physicians still earn substantially more than average workers but may not reach the extreme percentiles seen in the US. They typically fall in the 90-95th percentile range.
Key Patterns Across OECD:
- Specialists vs. General Practitioners: In most countries, specialists earned more than GPs, with particularly large differentials in Australia, Belgium, and Korea Oecd-ilibrary.
- Public vs. Private Practice: Physicians working in the private sector tend to earn more than those in the public sector Oecd-ilibrary, affecting their percentile ranking.
- Income Distribution Compression: In countries with more compressed income distributions (like Nordic countries), physicians still rank high but the absolute income gap compared to median earners is smaller than in countries with wider income distributions.
- Healthcare System Structure: The structure of healthcare systems significantly impacts where physicians fall in the income distribution. It seems that the system of funding health care, rather than a particular method of remuneration, is the most potent factor in conditioning physician income Nih.
Overall, while physicians consistently rank among the highest income earners in all OECD countries, their exact percentile position varies significantly by country. In most OECD countries, physicians typically fall somewhere between the 85th and 99th percentiles of household income, with the highest relative positions observed in the United States, followed by Canada and Australia. The original statement that physicians generally earn around the 95th percentile holds fairly true across many OECD countries, though with notable variation.
EDIT: So no rich country has starving medical specialists who are actually practicing medicine, is the point.
