The Deceptive Income of Physicians
Physicians are among the most well-compensated professionals in the US, right? Well, it depends on how you look at it.
The median gross income among high school teachers, including the value of benefits but excluding their pension, is about $50,000 per year.9 The median gross income among internal medicine physicians is $205,441,8 accounting for time spent training, student loan debt, years worked, hours worked per year and disproportionate income taxes — the adjusted net hourly wage of an internist is $34.46 per hour, while that of a high school teacher is $30.47 per hour. Though the gross income of a fully trained internal medicine physician is four times that of a high school teacher, the adjusted net hourly wage of an internal medicine physician is only 1.13 times that of a high school teacher. Most people would argue that high school teachers are not paid enough, yet for some reason most people would also argue that physicians are paid too much.
