The state of compensation transparency in medicine needs to change
why we need a levels.fyi in medicine
As an immigrant kid, I need certainty/proof that pursuing a career in medicine can enable myself to break the poverty cycle and financially support myself. levels.fyi has been an excellent resource during my time in tech, as it provides accurate and public salary information on tech jobs. However, because of the size of the profession (especially in Canada) and the general shyness about discussing compensation means that compensation numbers are hard to come by. Additionally, many doctors work as independent contractors who bill the government, making their income variable with things such as:
efficiency
number of hours worked
technological improvements
One thing that people don’t tell you is that 1st and 2nd year medical school suck. You’re memorizing tons of pointless information that will not be clinically relevant. However, 3rd year comes and you’re now in the (hospital) wards, playing as an actual real-life doctor, and getting to apply your skills and knowledge. 4th year comes around and at the beginning you apply for CarMS and give interviews around February. So it’s really not that bad!
Once you finish medical school, you enter paid training (residency). After you graduate residency you become a full time attending doctor who can now bill the government directly. From there, if you are e.g. a family doctor, then you effectively have carte blanche at billing our single-payer healthcare system. Especially in Canada, audits and lawsuits are quite rare except in the case of egregious malpractice. Also unique to Canada is the fact that there are few DOs or PAs, and Canadians are generally hesitant about seeing anyone other than a MD. Finally, doctors effectively have the strongest, anti-competitor union in the country, preventing both competent natural born citizens from becoming doctors through medical school and residency spot limitations as well as talented immigrants from coming and alleviating critical job shortages, via unreasonable licensing exams and standards (think LeetCode but 2-5 years of it). In my current trajectory towards becoming a family physician, I am graduating into an extreme shortage of family doctors, where this shortage is mandated by law (at least, by the licensing body)
Effectively the result of this small, exclusive community creates a hereditary class of physicians, where only family members of doctors know how much they make, and this excludes the subset of people who follow money in tech/biglaw/finance from following money in medicine. And this is a bad thing as these entrepreneurially-minded folks can deliver increased healthcare (especially family physicians) but also systematic change. Effectively, governments want (existing) doctors to work more, as this reduces wait times and helps catch issues more quickly. Seeing more patients while still maintaining an SLA is a win-win for all involved.
To that end, I am putting out an open call for a levels.fyi for medicine. Let’s share salaries so that your take-home compensation can increase and we can deliver better healthcare to all.
P.S. if you are a talented frontend dev, I am interested in collaborating :) PM me for details
PPS. From CBC News: It’s worth noting that Canadian medical schools turn away more than 1,000 Canadian doctors trained abroad annually, even though the country is facing a physician shortage. However, they still manage to find residency spots for foreign nationals who are much less likely to stay and help chip away at the physician deficit 3.