As we near the end of the year, it’s an interesting exercise to look back and compare it to prior years. Whether we’re looking back on changes and trends in the economy, politics, or medicine, we often find many significant events occurred. Numbers often tell us a story of the past that help elucidate the future, so let’s look at some numbers and trends.

One of those interesting trends was mentioned in a recent New Yorker article which implicated physicians in desiring to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (or health care reform in general) because of a concern for reduced wages¹. However, despite this concern, physicians have continued to do well monetarily despite the rising costs of medical care.

Since I’ve heard many physicians complain about their dropping wages over time, I was skeptical about the New Yorker article statement. So, when in doubt, look for statistics. I found a couple of interesting stats. First, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some of the common physician incomes for the year 2014 are as follows²:

Since a podiatrist is writing this editorial, I had to take a look at where the podiatric profession sits with these numbers. According to the BLS national estimates from May 2015 for podiatric wages are $136,180 (annual national average) with the top five paying states (in descending order) being³:

Hawaii ($268,140)
Nebraska ($201,140)
Wisconsin ($190,440)
Missouri ($176,680)
Texas ($169,800)

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“The average physician makes $51,000 more than the average podiatrist”

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For perspective, according to U.S. News the median physician salary is $187,199⁴. Clearly podiatrists can stand to have an increase in salary. Happily, this same U.S. News site rates podiatrists as the 14^th top paying job.

To answer the original question (Are physicians’ salaries on the rise or not?), according to this same site physician salaries were on the rise until 2010, at which point they stagnated and have remained at approximately the above stated average since then. How these figures change with the incoming presidential administration and future medical changes is anyone’s guess.

While researching these statistics, I came across an interesting set of information that elucidated the current state of affairs. Medscape published its yearly Physician Compensation Report⁵ for 2016. They performed an online survey of 19,183 physicians across 26 specialties and found some interesting trends. Unfortunately, podiatry is not included in the survey, but despite that, the results of the survey are informative.

Here are some of the major findings. For the full survey results see citation 5 below.

The top five and bottom five earning physicians are as follows:

Pay for almost all medical specialties was up in 2016 except for allergy, pulmonary, pathology, plastic surgery, and anesthesiology.

Interestingly, there were some major differences in regards to gender, with most female physicians surveyed being employed (72% women versus 59% men). Additionally, women earned significantly less income than men regardless of whether they were in primary care or specialties.

In fact, women surveyed made 25% less than their specialist male counterparts and 15% less when in primary care. Now, you may argue that these numbers make sense, since a number of women may work part time during child-rearing years. However, this survey eliminated all part-time physicians and only included those who worked at least 40 hours/week. Clearly, the glass ceiling still exists in the medical field. I found these trends particularly interesting in light of a prior editorial about the challenges of women in medicine for which I received mixed reviews. Our society has a lot of work to do to advance the treatment of female physicians.

Numbers and statistics are tricky animals, and we always have to be cautious not to make too many overarching conclusions from one survey, but the numbers seem reasonably clear here. Doctors in general, especially the men, are doing well from an income standpoint. What happens in the near future is anyone’s guess.