Underpaid: Why Resident Physicians Are Paid So Little - The Average Doctor

Over half of current doctors in training believe residents are significantly underpaid. And I don’t think they’re wrong. The question is, why is that the case? In this post, I’ll show you how resident salaries are determined and explain why that results in such little pay. Resident physicians make on average ~$13.00/hr when accounting for duty hours worked. Compared to other professions with similar or even lower levels of training, resident pay appears very small. This is because resident graduate medical eduction (GME) funding is primarily provided by Medicare, but salaries are decided by the teaching hospitals themselves. And there isn’t much incentive to increase pay. Why would residency salaries be decided by medicare funding? Why not determine salaries in some other way, like letting the market decide? That’s how most other professional salaries are decided, right? The answer is a little bit complex. Let me explain. First, here are the average salaries for residents by post-gradu

Over half of current doctors in training believe residents are significantly underpaid. And I don’t think they’re wrong. The question is, why is that the case? In this post, I’ll show you how resident salaries are determined and explain why that results in such little pay. Resident physicians make on average ~$13.00/hr when accounting for duty hours worked. Compared to other professions with similar or even lower levels of training, resident pay appears very small. This is because resident graduate medical eduction (GME) funding is primarily provided by Medicare, but salaries are decided by th