Medscape laid out how young physicians feel about their pay in its "Millennial Physician Compensation Report 2024," published Sept. 26.
The findings are based on the responses of 7,000 U.S. practicing physicians who participated in an online survey between October 2023 and January 2024.
Here are five takeaways on how millennial physicians feel about their pay:
1. The percentages of physician specialists who feel happy about their compensation:
- Psychiatry: 61%
- Anesthesiology: 61%
- Dermatology: 60%
- Emergency medicine: 60%
- General surgery: 50%
- Family medicine: 46%
- Ophthalmology: 42%
- OB-GYN: 42%
- Orthopedics: 41%
- Internal medicine: 40%
- Pediatrics: 39%
- Rheumatology: 38%
2. Forty-nine percent of millennial physicians said they feel fairly paid in relation to their work demands.
3. Two percent of millennial physicians said potential pay was the main factor in choosing a specialty. Twenty-one percent said it was a leading factor, 48% said it was a minor factor and 29% said it was no factor.
4. "Doctors go through multiple years of school and then have to act like we are working at Dunkin' Donuts — like we are on the assembly line," an anonymous physician told Medscape. "We should not have to be paid per patient seen but valued for the 8-9 years of training."
5. Eighteen percent of millennial physicians are taking on other medical-related work, according to the report. Fifteen percent are doing medical moonlighting, 8% are adding more hours to their primary job and 5% are picking up nonmedical-related work.