WSJ Article "Anesthesiologist make highest average salary of any profession"

[agammaglobulin]

New article by WSJ with numbers pulled from the Labor Department claiming Anesthesiologists make the highest average salary of any profession at 235,000. So ridiculous. While I don't doubt the number, I can't imagine NSurgeons, Derm, Orthopods, ENT, etc etc not making more. But my favorite is the comment at the bottom by Sunnylicious 'Tax the Anesthesiologists...they won't feel a thing'.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014...eos-10-facts-about-wages-in-america/?mod=e2fb

also on this glorious day, "eye" is replaced by 'me'. lol

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[agammaglobulin]

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[pgg]

Every few months we get the usual lazy-journalist fluff article about salaries, and they cut & paste the last article that lists anesthesiologists on top.

 

[BrakngLyv]

I agree. This is incomplete, lazy journalism that gives a skewed view of reality. Fortunately, it's easier than ever now to address these issues publicly and directly. And as good stewards of our profession, I believe it's important we do that.

Each time one sees an inaccuracy like this, send a quick email, or preferably something more public like a tweet addressing the concern. It doesn't take long. It will have effect on individual reporters--making them put a little more effort into the next story, or put a little more thought into the wording.

I've already addressed this story directly with the writer. Hopefully others will make it a habit of doing the same.

 

[gasdoc77]

Maybe as a profession we should set aside inferiority complexes and be a little more discreet about our income. Where do they get these bogus numbers anyway?!

 

[wjs010]

why are they so obsessed with trying to hurt physician salaries? Why would you want to cut the salaries of the people who save lives every day???i just don't understand it. If people are bitter about not making enough ,maybe they should have gone to college and med/law/business school.

 

[Spinach Dip]

What baffles me is why they picked anesthesia instead of surgery/derm/etc. Did they latch onto it because they typed "kinds of doctor" into google and anesthesia was the first alphabetical result?

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

why are they so obsessed with trying to hurt physician salaries? Why would you want to cut the salaries of the people who save lives every day???i just don't understand it. If people are bitter about not making enough ,maybe they should have gone to college and med/law/business school.

Probably a combination of not knowing/caring what physicians go through to get those high paying jobs and believing that physicians should be public servants (with the accompanying pay). Add in a little jealousy too.

 

[wjs010]

Probably a combination of not knowing/caring what physicians go through to get those high paying jobs and believing that physicians should be public servants (with the accompanying pay). Add in a little jealousy too.

I feel like anesthesiologists are getting raped more than any specialty..i mean, it is not enough that the public and government has said that they aren't of much value anymore ( CRNA)...but NOW you have misleading, false info about their salary rank? Oh boy...I wouldn't be surprised if some third party is paying the "journalists" to report this stuff.

 

[pmichaelmd]

Agree with the above. I would let the lazy journalists know that they had reported erroneously and perhaps post a few, sarcastic tweets on the matter. This could be done without revealing to the author, or public, that many anesthesiologists easily double that ludicrous figure

 

[repititionition]

What baffles me is why they picked anesthesia instead of surgery/derm/etc. Did they latch onto it because they typed "kinds of doctor" into google and anesthesia was the first alphabetical result?

Because the source data is flawed and they don't take the time/effort to understand it.

The BLS data looks at physician salary, not compensation. Why is this important?

Make $1 million per year 1099? Not on the list.
Make $250K per year on W2? Near the top of the list.

If every plastic surgeon were employed (outside of academics essentially none are), then they'd be at the top of the list. It just happens that a larger share of anesthesiologists are employed, either by AMC or directly by hospital, relative to the other specialties on there, which causes substantial skew.

If they bothered to look at % of physicians in an employment model (which is the only $ that the BLS survey sees) for each specialty vs. % of physicians in a PP model, the flaws of using the BLS data would be obvious.

It's incredible to me that the WSJ has run no fewer than 4 articles recently on the move from PP->employment and yet a reporter on the health beat fails to do the math on compensation report implications of the change.

 

[aneftp]

"The figure excludes stock and year-end bonuses, overtime pay, clothing and tool allowances and other perks."

Stopped reading after the article put this disclaimer out. The general public doesn't understand the disclaimer at all. If they really wanted to pound home that point they can say Steve Jobs earns $1 salary as CEO of Apple for years.

 

[epidural man]

I always new journalism was mostly filled with lies...this really supports that theory.