Pay For Medical Residents Hasn\'t Increased Significantly Since 1970s
Once medical school graduates finish with their residency training, they all can look forward to secure jobs with six-figure jobs, and potentially even break into the seven figures if they're in a high-demand specialty in a big city such as New York City or Los Angeles.
But getting through that residency – which in some instances can last as long as a decade – is a poorly-paid slog for most newly minted doctors, according to an annual survey of medical residency compensation and medical school debt by Medscape.
The average resident salary in 2012 was $55,300 a year – about two-thirds less than what a new family practice physician earns upon completion of their residency. Although family medicine residents earn even less than the average – about $52,000 annually. There is a moderate disparity by gender, with women residents earning $54,000 on average, compared to $56,000 for male residents.
However, there are wide variations based on geography. Residents in the northwestern U.S. earn the most, averaging $71,000 per year, followed by those in the Northeast, at $61,000. But those residents in the Southeast and much of the Great Plains states are paid well below the nationwide average.
As they do when they're finally fully certified, physicians focused on specialty care earn more during their residency than other recent medical school graduates. Critical care residents are at the top, earning an average of $65,000, followed by radiology residents, at $63,000. Pulmonary medicine and gastroenterology residents both earn an average of $60,000 – the only other specialties that are compensated in the 60s.
Not surprisingly, M.D.s in their first post-residency year earn the smallest amount of money, $51,000 on average. That climbs to $58,000 by year five – which typically includes surgical and other complex specialties. By year eight, which typically includes orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons, the average compensation reaches $66,000.
Although most residents can expect to earn more as they inch toward becoming a fully-licensed physician, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in May that medical residency compensation has not changed for the past 40 years when adjusted for inflation. Teaching hospitals receive about $16 billion a year from the federal government to fund graduate medical education programs.
“Residents receive some direct educational benefits, and their practice during training can incur costs for the hospital; for example, they tend to order more tests and services than fully trained physicians do,” wrote the authors of the NEJM article, which included former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Director Gail Wilensky. “But unlike medical students, residents provide substantial amounts of service to patients, thereby generating substantial revenues for their hospitals, particularly after the first year of residency. “
Jacob Sunshine, M.D., a second-year anesthesiology resident at the University of Washington, noted in the publication Slate earlier this year that his son's day care costs consume 40% of his take-home pay.
Meanwhile, many residents are facing substantial amounts of debt. According to MedScape, although a quarter of residents report no debt at all, 36% of residents carry debt exceeding $200,000, and another 22% have debt exceeding $100,000, with most of that burden connected to the costs of attending medical school. The American Association of Medical Colleges reported that the average medical school debt has increased 6.3% since the early 1990s. Those debt loads do not decrease significantly even during longer, higher-paid residencies, suggesting that most every penny is going toward living expenses.
