Do You Get Paid in Residency? How Much Do Resident Doctors Make?

It’s a long and expensive journey to become a doctor. But after paying exorbitant tuition rates and likely racking up astronomical debt during medical school, you (hopefully!) become a resident. And that means you actually get paid. Yes, for the first time, you’re being paid to be a doctor. But just how much do residents make, and can the salary actually help you put a dent in your debt?

In this guide, we’ll cover how much resident doctors are paid, the hours they’re expected to work, and whether or not residents feel they’re fairly compensated.

 

Do You Get Paid During Residency?

Yes, in the US, you are paid during residency. However, unfortunately, residents are not paid very much considering the massive number of hours they are expected to work.

While most residents are paid a similar amount, some specialties make more or less than others due to how many hours they’re expected to put in.

 

How Much Are Residents Paid in the US?

According to a 2023 Medscape Report, the average salary for a resident in the US is now $67,400. This is up 5% from the previous year, which was $64,200 in 2022.

Typically, residents are paid in the high $50,000s or high $60,000s per year, depending on their specialty. This amount will increase as they advance through their training, which can last anywhere from 3-7 years. For example, family medicine is a 3-year residency, radiology takes 5 years, and neurosurgery lasts 7 years.

Learn more: How Long Is Residency? (By Specialty)

 

How Much Are Residents Paid per Hour in the US?

The hourly rate of residents varies significantly because while pay is based on a set salary, the number of hours worked can vary by specialty, institution, and year of training.

For example, if the resident salary is $60,000 a year and the physician works 50 hours a week, they make approximately $23 an hour. But if the resident works 70 hours a week, that’s only approximately $16.50 an hour.

The hourly rate is even worse when a resident is overworked, which happens far too often. At 85 hours a week, a resident would only make approximately $13.50 an hour, which is less than minimum wage in many states.

After years of training and hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical school bills, it can be incredibly tough on residents to work 80+ hour weeks while only being paid minimum wage.

Now, while the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education limited resident work hours in the United States to a maximum of 80 hours weekly in 2003, there are numerous examples of this rule not being adhered to.

And it’s easy to understand why. After four years of grueling medical school training and the bills that go along with it, a resident is unlikely to quit or complain if they end up working more than 80 hours in a week.

Dr. Jubbal covers this on his personal channel in a video about the harsh reality of being a resident in the US. He reacts to residents being used as cheap labor, sometimes making less than minimum wage when factoring in 80+ hour work weeks.

 

Does a Resident’s Salary Increase During Training?

Yes, a resident’s salary increases throughout training, but not by much compared to the salary of a licensed physician.

Image Credit: Medscape 2023 Resident Salary & Debt Report.

Residents training the longest at 6-8 years can expect to earn about 21% more on average than their beginning salary. This brings the yearly salary up to around $75,000. Compared to the salary of a mid-level provider, such as a NP or PA, residents get paid only about half as much, while providing comparable levels of care.

Of course, it’s a decent salary, but you have to remember that physicians typically have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt collecting interest by the time they reach residency, not to mention the highly skilled labor they’re providing and the risk they take on.

 

The Cost of Medical Training

Let’s break down just what that kind of debt, and the interest associated with it, looks like.

As a resident making the average salary of $67,400 a year, that equals $5600 a month.

The average student debt coming out of medical school is approximately $250,000. Let’s be conservative again on interest rates and say the loan interest is at 7%. This puts monthly interest alone at nearly $1500 a month.

Based on income-driven repayment plans, or an IDR plan, residents can be approved for a much lower minimum payment, which can be as low as $300 a month. But keep in mind that only paying the minimum required on your debt will mean you continue to accrue over a thousand dollars of interest every month.

Let’s put it this way, even if you were somehow able to pay $2000 a month toward your medical school loans for a year, that only equates to reducing your debt by about $6000. After a year of monthly payments, you would only reduce that $250K to $244K.

It’s extremely likely that you won’t make any sort of dent in your medical school debt during residency and will come out the other side with more debt than you started with due to accrued interest.

If you’d like us to break down more exact calculations and options for paying off medical school debt in a future video, let us know in the comments.

So, what does that mean for your hypothetical monthly finances?

If you pay zero state tax on your income, federally, you’re looking at paying a little more than $12,000 a year in taxes, which is $1000 a month, bringing your monthly paycheck down to $4600.

If you pay a low minimum payment of $500 toward your debt, you’re now at $4100.

The average rent across the US is $1400 a month. That brings you down to $2700. A low grocery budget for one person is approximately $300, bringing your paycheck down to $2400.

Now, you’ll also need to get around. The average cost of owning a car varies considerably. Once again, let’s lean conservative and say your monthly transportation costs are only $500 a month, leaving a mere $1900 left.

With that, you’ll need to cover dining out, utilities, phone bill, fitness expenses, medical expenses, travel, social events, holiday gifts, coffee, prescriptions, clothing and new scrubs, any unforeseen emergencies, disability insurance, which every resident should have, contributing to your retirement account, buying educational resources for upcoming board exams, and this list could go on.

The life of a resident making $70K is far from luxurious. The paycheck is not in line with the value provided compared to other healthcare workers and it doesn’t come close to matching the number of hours they are expected to work. You won’t be starving, but it can be incredibly stressful to scrimp and watch your student loan go up by hundreds to thousands of dollars every month while you’re working your butt off 80 hours a week in the hospital.

 

Do Residents Feel Fairly Compensated?

The 2023 Resident Salary & Debt Report from Medscape shares that only 20% of residents feel fairly compensated for their work during residency.

This is the average across all years of training, but this statistic fluctuates as a physician progresses through residency. During year 1 of residency, 21% of residents reported being happy with their salary, but during year 8, 29% of residents reported being satisfied with how much they make.

Image Credit: Medscape 2023 Resident Salary & Debt Report.

Residents who were dissatisfied with their compensation felt it did not reflect their work hours and was not comparable to other medical staff.

 

What Does This Mean for Aspiring Physicians?

While licensed physicians in the US earn a sizable and reliable salary in the low to mid six-figures, it takes a long time to get there. And the larger the eventual salary, the longer residency will take.

If you’re thinking of getting into medicine for financial reasons, understand that while it’s great money, it takes a huge investment of time and a massive opportunity cost to become a practicing physician. You’ll have nearly a decade of schooling and training that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. And on top of that, you’ll only start making six figures after residency, which is 7-12 years after someone who decided to pursue a career in engineering, coding, finance, or entrepreneurship.

If you have more questions about how much money doctors make or how to reduce your debt after medical school, check out our other financial articles: Why Are So Many Doctors Broke? Is It Worth the Debt? and How Much Do Doctors Make? (Specialty Breakdown).

Med School Insiders can help you prepare a stand out residency application. We offer a number of Residency Admissions Consulting Services tailored to your needs, including ERAS application editing, residency personal statement editing, one-on-one advising, and interview prep. No matter the specialty you’re interested in, we’ll help you hone your narrative to get the attention of your top choice residency programs.