5 ms·

FWIW, garden-variety West Coast ER doc here. Right now, I'm an independent contractor who makes ~$200/h. In a few months when my small company gets acquired, I'

FWIW, garden-variety West Coast ER doc here. Right now, I'm an independent contractor who makes ~$200/h. In a few months when my small company gets acquired, I'll be a W-2 who for various reasons will make ~$160/h before CA taxes. So, clearly not starving, and maybe even undeserving to be in the top 10--15% after working just ~24--36h/wk in night shifts. But won't make $$MILLIONS$$ and won't get as much as your average Googler with equivalent career experience to mine, I reckon. And also never made more than ~$50k in my life until my mid-30s. Doctor pay is facing a whole lot of downward pressure from health insurers, private equity, and other FIRE people recently. Part of the C-suites' strategy has been to open self-funded residencies where they pay their residents much less than they would have to pay the equivalent lifelong salaried PA. This, then, creates an "oversupply" (from docs' perspective) of trained docs and forces pay down. Personally I have no sentiment for the profession and do see how this could ultimately be good for patients. Unfortunately, in reality the FIRE people seem to just take all that cash for themselves and the patient is left paying the same amount or more than they did 20 years ago (via insurance or whatever you want to call it).

bradleyjg 6y ago
If I’m understanding the situation correctly you’ll be in the 97% percentile of individual income while working on average 30 hours a week. You also can pick up and move anywhere in the country and be pretty confident of finding a comparably paying job. As mentioned, involuntary unemployment is all but unheard of in your profession. Within the hospital you’re near the top of the pecking order. Outside work your profession is well respected and rarely is the subject of hit pieces in prestige media. I’m not saying it’s the best set up in the world, but it’s pretty good. Certainly a lot of people would consider it worth the financial costs of admission. (The hazing parts of medical training are unnecessary and unfortunate, different people are going to suffer more or less from that.) Edit: Everyone is entitled to blow off steam. Nothing is perfect and there’s always going to be downsides to every profession. It just seems like complaining doctors is something of a cliche but I’ve yet to have one convince me that’s it’s not a pretty sweet gig, loans and medmal notwithstanding.
- hundreddaysoff 6y ago
  Not complaining, just giving y'all some interesting and updated information about my profession's economic situation and wondering why at least the patient end of the deal isn't getting any better. I'm pretty happy with my lot in life. May be 97% by hourly pay but that implies I can work as many hours as I'd like. But I effectively already work all the hours I can work for various reasons, making my family 80--90th percentile. Unfortunately, due to the physician oversupply and other forces I described, it's getting very hard to find random doctor jobs anywhere in the country. Just another interesting thing about medicine that is changing.

bradleyjg 6y ago

If I’m understanding the situation correctly you’ll be in the 97% percentile of individual income while working on average 30 hours a week. You also can pick up and move anywhere in the country and be pretty confident of finding a comparably paying job. As mentioned, involuntary unemployment is all but unheard of in your profession. Within the hospital you’re near the top of the pecking order. Outside work your profession is well respected and rarely is the subject of hit pieces in prestige media. I’m not saying it’s the best set up in the world, but it’s pretty good. Certainly a lot of people would consider it worth the financial costs of admission. (The hazing parts of medical training are unnecessary and unfortunate, different people are going to suffer more or less from that.) Edit: Everyone is entitled to blow off steam. Nothing is perfect and there’s always going to be downsides to every profession. It just seems like complaining doctors is something of a cliche but I’ve yet to have one convince me that’s it’s not a pretty sweet gig, loans and medmal notwithstanding.

hundreddaysoff 6y ago
Not complaining, just giving y'all some interesting and updated information about my profession's economic situation and wondering why at least the patient end of the deal isn't getting any better. I'm pretty happy with my lot in life. May be 97% by hourly pay but that implies I can work as many hours as I'd like. But I effectively already work all the hours I can work for various reasons, making my family 80--90th percentile. Unfortunately, due to the physician oversupply and other forces I described, it's getting very hard to find random doctor jobs anywhere in the country. Just another interesting thing about medicine that is changing.