Doctor Salaries!

[diametric]

So whenever I come across a thread on how much doctors earn, it tends to be riddled with a lot of confusion, uncertainty and at times, false information. So I thought it might be a good idea to provide some definitive answers for both medical students and prospective medical students, because I know it was definitely something I wanted to know as a med hopeful, but had to go around digging to find the info myself.

So these are the rates of pay for NSW medical officers, perhaps people from other states could dig around their own state awards and post the salaries paid in their home town:

(as of 2010)
Intern: $56,021

Resident, 1st year: $65,664
Resident, 2nd year: $72,222
Resident, 3rd year: $81,800
Resident, 4th year: $88,802

Registrar 1st year: $81,800
Registrar 2nd year: $88,802
Registrar 3rd year: $95,832
Registrar 4th year: $102,582
Senior Registrar: $115,339

source: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/resourc...d_salaries.pdf

While I can't find any specific info on the pay of fellows/consultants, I assume 'Career Medical Officer' covers those individuals in the award, but a working doctor is probably more fit to comment on that. Fellows/consultants are 'staff specialists,' not 'Career Medical Officers.' CMO's "by definition have no specialty and are not working towards one." So essentially they're residents forever.

[Kyle]

Career medical officers are not specialists, by definition they have no specialty and are not working towards one. Staffy salaries are a bit complicated, they're worked out in a table by year, level and private practice allowance.

[n33b]

From what I hear, the figures you hear about are full-time equivalent. In reality, interns for example have a much bigger "opportunity" (not sure what to call this, because I don't know if they really have a choice...) for working many extra hours, and this can bring up the pay a fair bit (especially with higher rates). Don't quote me on this though, maybe one of the seniors here would give more accurate info, though it's been done to death already :P.

[Kyle]

Don't be fooled by the staff specialist rates listed in the award, sure it seems comparatively low starting at $137,263, but all staffies add 17.4% special allowance to base salary, and (with the exception of level 5 specialists) all staffies add a private practice allowance of almost $30k or more, or if on a level with private practice (levels 2-4) have minimum drawing rights supplementation to at least that amount, and as far as I can see MORE.

Long story short, even though it says salary is $137,263, even the lowest level 1, first year as a specialist, full time staffy is taking home a minimum of $179131, or close enough to $180,000 as to make no difference.

Progression is also rapid, so that this theoretical newly minted specialist who stays on level 1 (the lowest level of pay except level 5, which is a special case), progresses to $221053 as a minimum pay by 5th year.

Senior Staff Specialists have a minimum of $242,014.

All of these minimums are without any managerial allowance.

[Season]

hmm sounds odd, I know the reg in my area all get at least 100, 000. I don't think they're 4 year regs either. As they were joking that if they didn't use a certain drug (which had limited evidence to back it up) they could afford another reg. Perhaps this was factoring in overtime??

[Jackie]

Wow...

[diametric]

Quote: Originally Posted by n33b

From what I hear, the figures you hear about are full-time equivalent. In reality, interns for example have a much bigger "opportunity" (not sure what to call this, because I don't know if they really have a choice...) for working many extra hours, and this can bring up the pay a fair bit (especially with higher rates). Don't quote me on this though, maybe one of the seniors here would give more accurate info, though it's been done to death already :P.

n33b, yes, these are all base salaries that do not factor in unrostered overtime. Unrostered overtime, ie, when you come in early and leave late because you have duties/things to still take care of, you can claim that overtime, which can bring up an intern's salary by around 10-15K. Not everyone claims overtime though, as the hospital system doesn't make it easy to, and there is a stigma that accompanies it. However, it's entirely your right to claim money you worked for, and I wouldn't hesitate to do so.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kyle

Don't be fooled by the staff specialist rates listed in the award, sure it seems comparatively low starting at $137,263, but all staffies add 17.4% special allowance to base salary, and (with the exception of level 5 specialists) all staffies add a private practice allowance of almost $30k or more, or if on a level with private practice (levels 2-4) have minimum drawing rights supplementation to at least that amount, and as far as I can see MORE.

Long story short, even though it says salary is $137,263, even the lowest level 1, first year as a specialist, full time staffy is taking home a minimum of $179131, or close enough to $180,000 as to make no difference.

Progression is also rapid, so that this theoretical newly minted specialist who stays on level 1 (the lowest level of pay except level 5, which is a special case), progresses to $221053 as a minimum pay by 5th year.

Senior Staff Specialists have a minimum of $242,014.

All of these minimums are without any managerial allowance.

and Kyle, where are you getting those numbers from? The only document regarding specialist pay I could find was this one: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policie...IB2006_021.pdf (data from 05 and 06) which has numbers a lot lower than what you're saying. I also don't quite understand the terms and such you're using, could you break it down a little bit for me and others?

Found the updated document for 2010. So the base salary for specialists are:

1st year: $137,263
2nd year: $145,292
3rd year: $153,312
4th year: $161,357
5th year: $169,386
Senior: $185,448

But this doesnt factor in 'Special OnCall Allowance,' which I'm assuming is like a retainer for when you're called to the hospital on off-duty time, which is:

1st year: $23,883
2nd year: $25,281
3rd year: $26,676
4th year: $28,076
5th year: $29,473
Senior: $32,268

On top of this you have managerial allowances for Levels 1 (19,039), 2, (33,319) and 3 (47,598) only. I don't understand what it means by levels, could you explain that Kyle or someone else?

And then you need to factor in private practise allowance, and this is where I don't quite understand things. Does every consultant/fellow run a private practise/work in private practise as well?

Quote: Originally Posted by Season

hmm sounds odd, I know the reg in my area all get at least 100, 000. I don't think they're 4 year regs either. As they were joking that if they didn't use a certain drug (which had limited evidence to back it up) they could afford another reg. Perhaps this was factoring in overtime??

Overtime would clearly be a factor, as reg's would work more than interns and residents. And also, do they work in public/private hospitals? As state awards only cover public hospitals.

[Season]

Quote: Originally Posted by diametric

Overtime would clearly be a factor, as reg's would work more than interns and residents. And also, do they work in public/private hospitals? As state awards only cover public hospitals.

gosh I'm not that silly, of course its a public hospital

[diametric]

lol, sorry! In which case, it's prolly just the overtime that pushes them into six figure land.

[Kyle]

Diametric, have a look at the "determination", not just the "award".

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/resourc...ermination.pdf

Edited to Add: See note 2 on schedule one, that where percentages of salary are referred to as private practice allowance and as drawing rights, it should be taken as a percentage of salary POST the addition of the special 17.4% loading.