How Much Do Doctors Make? – 2020

How Much Do Doctors Make?

Highlights from the 2020 Medscape Compensation Report

By: LifeofaMedStudent

How much do doctors make in the US?

Medscape recently published their 10th “Physician Compensation Report” new for 2020. Nearly 20,000 physicians in many of the most common specialties were surveyed for their income and compensation broken down by location, specialty, gender, and more!

Note: These numbers were surveyed and tabulated PRIOR to the COVID19 outbreak in spring 2020. Though incomes for many physicians were altered drastically, it is not reflected in these reports.

Average Physician Income

The average physician income is up again for the 2020 report! Splitting physicians into specialists and primary care, specialists earned an average of $346,000 while primary care physicians brought home $243,000. These numbers are up from 2019 when specialists earned $341,000 on average and primary care $237,000.

Compared to 2011, the first year of the report, the average physician salary has risen from roughly $200,000 to over $300,000 in the last 9 years. While it’s good the numbers up for physicians in general, not everyone will be happy as the gap between specialists and primary care continues to further increase each year, now representing at monstrous $133,000 average difference. Consider a usual 30-year career (an extra $3,300,000+ in income) and you can see why medical students are driven to high paying specialties when student loan debt is still growing out of control!

Physician Salary by Location

Similar to prior years, the “middle” of the US earns more than the coasts.

Indiana was #1 in 2018 – my home state – but has fallen a bit in the last two years. Either way the benefit of living in high paying, low cost of living area, cannot be underestimated as you start your career.

Physician Income by Specialty

While there are many ways to choose the right specialty, the old saying was to take the right “R.O.A.D” to financial success and happiness in medicine. The acronym was for the typically high-income (with good lifestyle) specialties of Radiology, Ophthalmology, Anesthesia, and Dermatology. The income part is still certainly true, as all are in the top 10 of specialty income.

#1 was again Orthopedic Surgery ($511k), followed by Plastic Surgery ($479k), followed by ENT ($455k), and then Cardiology ($438k). Each of these saw an increased income, except for ENT which was down just slightly. Interestingly, this was the exact same top 4 and order as last year. Ortho and Cards have been in the top for 6 years running now.

My specialty – anesthesia – saw a modest increase in average income from $392k to $398. I know I’m biased, but I think anesthesia is the best and greatest “bang for your buck” specialty – high income, good hours, and only a 4-year residency. What’s not to love!

Average Physician Salary by Gender

No different from prior years, there is a notable gap in salary by gender. Unfortunately, despite the increased awareness and support for female physicians – the trend is STILL TERRIBLE in both primary care and specialty fields according to this survey.

This year noted a Primary Care income broken down by gender of $264k for men vs. $212k for women – a 25% difference, similar to 2019. In 2018, the report found women in primary care earned 18% less than male physicians ($203K vs. $239K), which was again up from 16% from 2017.

In specialty fields, the gap was even larger – male physicians out-earned females by over 30% ($375k vs. $286k). This number was stable from 2019, but down a bit compared to 2018 when the gap was 36%.

Hopefully, continued publication and sharing of this information will support women negotiating higher rates and more fair earning opportunities.

Average Hours Worked

How much do physicians have to work to earn those salaries? The numbers can vary, but average around 38 hours per week seeing patients. That’s just the tip of the work iceberg, however, as physicians spend another 15+ hours per week on paperwork/administration. That’s a 53 hour work week on average – medicine is rarely an “easy” life!

Do Physicians feel fairly compensated and would they choose it again?

Specialties can vary greatly on who feels fairly compensated and ranged from a high of 67% in Oncology, to a low of only 44% in nephrology.

Overall, the least satisfied were also Endocrinology, Nephrology, Pulmonary, Urology, and OB/GYN. Interestingly, despite having a top income, only 55% of Plastic Surgeons and 60% of Orthopedic Surgeons felt fairly compensated. Emergency physicians, Radiologists, and Psychiatrists were among the most satisfied with their compensation – consistent throughout several past years.

When it comes to the big question of “would you choose medicine again” – in the past it’s been interesting the responses often had little correlation with income. In fact, many of the top responses were lower-paying specialties such as Infectious Disease, while several lower responses were high paying specialties such as Plastic Surgery. Overall, only 77% of physicians would choose medicine again.

In a flip, the “would you choose the same specialty” responses did seem to correlate with income – with nearly all the top responses being high paying specialties. It seems that most in medicine would in fact choose it again, but those in lower-paying specialties may be less likely to stick with their same specialty.

I hope sharing this data from Medscape allows medical students to get some idea of the future when looking at different specialties. The absolute numbers will vary from year to year, but when thinking of your future career – income, lifestyle, and satisfaction with the job –  are all extremely important factors to consider.

To read about the factors that go into matching a certain specialty – check out the latest NRMP Match Statistics.

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