What jobs make more than doctors?
I would suggest that the median of medicine is unbeatable but the outliers in business (especially tech and finance) are much, much higher. So, a top performer in medicine will earn great money. But a true top performer in business will earn insane money. For example, I know people who work in enterprise sales for big software companies (Microsoft/Salesforce/Oracle/IBM etc) who pull in half a million every year and have broken seven figures several years. Of course, less consistent than medicine but the top quartile is pretty incredible.
Also, BigLaw lawyers with a ton of experience, MBB consulting partners, investment bankers, hedge fund/private equity/asset management, etc.
And of course, business owners.
what jobs make more than medicine? well lets take a look at them and compare them to medicine on a non-passion scale (money, QOL, etc). This gonna be long.
first thats a bad question, given medicine is so varied in income. The average Primary care doc prob makes around 250k+ depending on their success and depending on specialist, can be 350k-1m+
only real comp that are attainable by masses is high finance, high tech, and big law until you get into higher level managers at which point its hard to say a salary number
First finance. IB is the main path to make doc money. My friends are started at 80-90k base, 10-20k signing bonus, and probably up to 40kish so all in around 130-150k first year salary is normal. they also work 70-80 hours a week, much of which is boring as ****. As a resident you might work a lot but at least its often engaging and interesting. After 3-4 years, IB analysts are promoted to associates. Again, with base+bonus, these guys make 170-250k depending on performance. So they can almost match PCP salaries by age like 27ish. Finally promotions after this are largely performance based so 300k+ for VPs and 500k-1m+ for MDs (managing directors) is common but few make it to that point.
Better financial opp than medicine? probably. but IB is hard to break into, and medicine has far more job security, more interesting job, more prestige, while taking longer, probably paying less if you compare a good banker to majority of docs (ofc more docs making 300k+ than bankers simply bc there are more docs at that level)
Tech:
Okay here, my friends at google/amazon etc started around 110k or so but cost of living hits that hard. My most talented friends were able to secure 200k+ all in first year salaries though (including equity and bonus) but again, these are super rare. For the most part, tech will NOT get you more money than medicine as a direct comp but it is far shorter, easier job, and if you invest that money well you can effectively be making the same. Tech like engineering is largely dependent on management roles to get 250k+ salaries, and obviously most people don't get to that point but it is of course possible
FInally, law. Big law starts at 190k (up 10k from last year) almost nationwide. Within a couple years if you make senior associate and such level roles, 300kish is normal. Junior Partners i've heard anywhere from 400k to nearing 1 million depending on their book of business and the size of the firm. And obviously senior partners can be 1m-5m+, again depending on the size of the firm.
In essence, yes other professions can make more than docs, but only a small amount of people reach the point in the professions that get to that salary outside of finance, where most everyone makes associate and they can get 200k+ all in. However after some point (200k? 170k?) increases in salary are marginal improvements for QOL, esp if marrying a spouse with good income.
Being a doctor will never be a BAD financial investment because to be blunt even 300k in loans isn't the end of the world if your salary is 250k. But at the same time it often is NOT a good financial investment because of the said loans added to the time value of the degree+residency. It's why people always say, don't go into medicine for money but also don't not go in because you think you can make more somewhere else.
if you can get into med school, yes you may be smart enough to do something else. but you never know.