4 ms·
It's not salary parity per se, but rather that in the comparison the doctors are paying both the actual cost of medical school (and the servicing of the resulti
by elgenie 10y ago
It's not salary parity per se, but rather that in the comparison the doctors are paying both the actual cost of medical school (and the servicing of the resulting debt) and the opportunity cost of spending seven-to-ten years in school/residency/fellowship before actually making a high salary. Meanwhile, their bachelor-only peers have been paid money, gained experience and gotten promoted.
- sjg007 10y agoDoctors can get 10 year loan forgiveness or even employer repayment. Then after age 40 (salary parity with a BS) the earnings compound. The doctor will be at 150k+ which is likely more than the BS holder alone. Plus the doctor doesn't have to worry about layoffs and is always employable.
- Declanomous 10y agoLoan forgiveness isn't that great of a deal, because the IRS treats it as taxable income. So if you are making $200k a year, and you get a $200k loan forgiven, you will have a massive tax burden. Plus, loan forgiveness is only after ten years of payments. Doctors will probably not have much money remaining on their loans, unless they spent ten years working for Doctors without Borders or something similar. If you pay back your student loans at the standard rate you will have repaid them after 10 years.
- sjg007 10y agoDoctors get special incentives to work in rural, nonprofit, NIH and other places... All of the big academic medical centers are nonprofits and they pay well.