MedicineA slight pain in the bank
Remember those coffee mugs that read, if you're so smart, why ain't you rich? These days, a doctor's income, while nothing to sneeze at, is unlikely to make a software engineer, or even a day trader, jealous. Making matters worse, there remains the widespread perception that doctors are overpaid. "They resent the fact that patients resent what they earn," says physician-placement specialist Richard Glehan, "the idea that a heart surgeon is making $500,000 off of sick people. Whereas nobody questions what Michael Eisner of Disney made when he exercised $72 million in options a couple of years ago." Add the fact that the closer you get to any metropolitan area, the lower the demand and the lower the compensation -- unless you're a top specialist. "Traditionally, the Midwest and the South have the lowest number of doctors per 100,000 people," says Glehan, "and they make more."
It's hard to generalize about doctors' salaries; a Park Avenue plastic surgeon who only accepts cash (and charges what he pleases) is worlds away from the foreign-medical-school graduate practicing as an internist at a hip center in downtown Brooklyn.
Broadly speaking, primary-care doctors make the lowest salaries. A first-year internist makes $115,000 (in Nebraska, that number climbs to $160,000). Pediatricians start at $110,000.
Specialists make more: An OB/GYN starts at around $135,000 (but there's $10,000 to $15,000 more in it for you if you're a woman) and by mid-career is earning $300,000. An ophthalmologist at mid-career, depending on how specialized the work is, can make from $300,000 to $800,000. But the guys who do corrective eye surgery operate outside the managed-care system and easily earn high-six-figure salaries. Anesthesiology is becoming hot, starting at $130,000 and going up to $400,000. Radiologists start at about $140,000 and reach $500,000.
Cardiothoracic surgeons earn a minimum of $200,000; half a million is not a problem for most, and some make more than a million. Noninvasive cardiologists and gastroenterologists earn $300,000 to $400,000.
General surgeons make about $150,000 in their first year and $300,000 at mid-career. Plastic surgeons start at $140,000, and the sky's the limit after that. According to the Greater New York Hospital Association, registered nurses in the metropolitan area average $47,742, although hospital RNs can go higher: At Beth Israel, the starting salary for a nurse right out of school is $51,000. And supervisory nurses who have worked there for years make as much as $70,000 or $80,000. Physical therapists average $45,000, and pharmacists $52,000.
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