More if they're specialty and/or surgical. One of the side effects of most hospitals being organized as non-profits is that they have to disclose the compensation level of their five highest-compensated, non-board/officer employees. I know at my hospital (mid-size, 250k metro area, ~$35k median income) that number ranges from $750k-1.2M.
Granted, most doctors aren't making anywhere near that, but it was pretty surprising to me when I looked up our 990 out of curiosity. I do think an MD, especially a specialist, stands a much better chance of making that sort of money than any given software engineer, though.
My point is more along the lines that I was surprised that these docs could draw that sort of salary in this particular market (and not that they don't deserve it). It was more or less along the lines that these are good, but perhaps not exceptional, docs in a market where wages are typically lower than the national norm.
EDIT:
And I'll note that I did specify specialists/surgeons for a reason. I'd expect GPs -- and most docs at my facility -- to earn significantly less than that. What I was getting at is that a specialist MD in a small market could expect to earn more than an above average developer in most markets. i.e., the doc absolutely has a harder path to their profession, but if they specialize beyond GP, they have a greater likelihood of return than your average specialist software engineer to compensate for it.
You're completely correct that the top earning physicians (mostly surgeons) can make seven figures or nearly so. I was referring only to family physicians, where $170k-$200k really is a realistic salary (even with several years of experience).
tl;dr - I suspect that there are more doctors as a percentage of that workforce earning, say, 400-500k+ than there are software engineers doing the same.
Once employed, hospitals agree on some arrangement in which they help pay sometimes up to as much as 50% of their loans (HRSA alone pays $170k in loan repayment to primary care docs for 5 years of service in a shortage area). And I don't know what kind of doctors you guys have been hanging out with, but most make way more than $300k after only a handful of years of experience.
> It's not unheard of for some medical students to have loan debt exceeding $300k.
True, but as it turns out, most doctors are sons and daughters of rich folks (at least that's what sister tells me, who's doing her residency now). So those loan debt episodes are being paid by mommies and daddies, and it's rather rare for these doctors to ever feel the pangs of financial pain in their time.
'Eh, not really [1]. Most will wind up in the upper $100k region (most being in some form of primary care). Not after a handful of years, but 4+ yrs college, 4+ yrs medical school, then bare minimum 3 year residency (with most 4+), with each step an order of magnitude more difficult.
> most doctors are sons and daughters of rich folks
Many are, but since we're in the anecdata game, none of my friends were.
Not going to lose sleep over it, upper $100's is plenty to compensate for high debt in the long run. But to pretend its not extremely stressful for most is to be misinformed.
Lastly: > 5 years of service in a shortage area
After spending the last 2 years in a qualifying region (though not for that purpose); topping off 12 yrs of post-high school with another 5 living somewhere you'd rather not be (to be polite) is no small feat. Thats 35 yrs old before you get a shot at living and working somewhere reasonable.
[1] http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/compensation/2013...
> True, but as it turns out, most doctors are sons and daughters of rich folks
> (at least that's what sister tells me, who's doing her residency now).
ADDENDUM Feel free to ignore this: (obviously you are morally bound to respond to the above;)
The way you speak about being the sons and daughters of rich kids seems to indicate that you and your sister feel separate from that group. Did you come from an affluent family?
I'm from a brown immigrant family. Brown/Asian immigrants seem to be exceptions everywhere, in that they're usually poor starting out and still persevere and make it through medical schools and whatever else. My family now is doing quite okay, but is probably still below the average residency student's family. The way it looks to me (anecdata), the average residency student's family has a household income of 1mil+. My family's household income is barely 200k, so make of that what you will.
[1] This is not and should not be read as an argument that DBAs > sales or anything to that effect.
> most make way more than $300k after only a handful of years of experience.
I was referring to family physicians. They do not make this sort of money on average, especially not just out of residency. There are numerous serious physician compensation reports that will confirm this.