College graduates can expect a salary of $80,000. they may be disappointed
New college graduates may need to manage their expectations about how much they can earn in their first job.
Question: What are the top 20 highest paying jobs in America?
Answer: Dr.
That’s not far from the truth. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 19 of the 20 occupations with the highest average wages in the United States are some type of doctor or dentist.
Pediatric surgeons will earn an average annual salary of $450,810 in 2024, according to federal data. Cardiologists earn $432,490. Orthopedic surgeons receive $365,060.
Of the top 20 highest-paying professions, only one is not a doctor (or dentist), and it’s at the bottom of the list. The 20th highest paying job in America is being an airline pilot. The average salary for pilots, co-pilots, and flight engineers is $226,600.
Physicians earn more than other broad categories of workers and more than engineers, according to federal data. More than just a computer scientist. More than a lawyer.
Economists say you have to drill down to elite subcategories such as corporate CEOs and legal partners to find groups that earn more than doctors. The average partner at a large firm earns more than $1.4 million annually. A typical S&P 500 CEO set aside $17 million in 2024, according to a study by Equilar and The Associated Press.
American doctors earn so much money that a group of economic researchers spent years trying to figure out why.
This is what they found.
lots of school, lots of time
As any medical school applicant knows, you have to study for a very long time to become a doctor. Years of training in college, medical school, and graduate school.
And the business hours are long. According to the researchers, a typical doctor’s work week ranges from more than 40 hours to more than 60 hours, depending on the specialty.
“Jobs involve a lot of training and long hours, which naturally leads to higher incomes,” said Joshua Gottlieb, an economist at the University of Chicago who worked on the study.
Researchers found that among medical professions, doctors tend to earn more in specialties that require more training and longer hours. For example, each additional year of training increases your annual income by $143,000.
But education and working hours don’t tell the whole story. Farmers and ranchers work long hours and don’t earn doctors’ salaries, according to old federal reports.
As for training, many of Gottlieb’s own academic colleagues have spent as many years in school as doctors. And most professors earn less than $100,000 a year.
“My brother is an emergency room doctor, and I’ve been in school longer than him,” Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School for Social Research in New York, told USA TODAY in 2024. She was not involved in the study cited above.
doctors like money
The researchers’ comments prompted a backlash from doctors, who found that they wanted higher-paying jobs.
Researchers reported in a 2024 paper that doctors from the best medical schools cluster in the highest-paying specialties. Physicians also prefer procedures that provide more benefit.
Some medical specialties pay eye-poppingly high salaries. According to the researchers, the highest salaries for doctors during their peak earning years (ages 40 to 55) are as follows: This number is from 2017, so it may be higher now.
- Neurosurgery: $920,500
- Orthopedics: $788,600
- Dermatology: $655,200
- Heart surgery: $607,300
- Ophthalmology: $597,000
As with salary-oriented workers in any field, Gottlieb said, “We see people gravitate towards specialized fields that pay more.” “I think that’s the human way.”
Maria Poliakova, an associate professor at Stanford School of Medicine, also joined Gottlieb’s research. She points out that medical school graduates tend to be bright students with many career options.
“In most cases, they are among the top students in the country and could have pursued other opportunities that paid well as well,” she says.
In a statement to USA TODAY, the American Medical Association noted that doctors often spend 12 to 15 years in training and typically graduate medical school with about $200,000 in debt. A higher salary can help you get out of debt and get back to work after years off.
not enough doctors
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United States has fewer doctors per capita than most other developed countries: 2.7 per 1,000 potential patients as of 2022, compared with 3.8 in France and 4.6 in Germany.
Researchers say a big reason for this is that the medical industry and the federal government have put a lid on the number of medical schools and residents in hospitals in the United States.
The shortage stems from a time when medical industry leaders believed there were too many doctors in the United States. Ironically, the same group is now warning of a shortage of doctors.
The AMA said its change in attitude reflects the evolution of the industry, noting that the current physician population is aging and dealing with burnout.
“It’s like an artificial limit on the supply of doctors,” said Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the libertarian group American Enterprise Institute. Andrew Biggs did not join Poliakova and Gottlieb in their study of doctors.
“This is what economists call a barrier to entry,” he said, which he said drives up doctors’ salaries.
The AMA “acts like a physician union” by limiting the number of physicians, Biggs said. “The important thing is to keep salaries high.”
government sets prices
Researchers say one of the fundamental reasons why doctors earn more is because of the high cost of medical care. And those prices are largely determined by the federal government.
Medicare, the federal insurance program, sets the prices for health care services. Prices are so high that medical expenses account for 18% of gross domestic product.
“Governments and policies have decided to devote a very large proportion of society’s resources to health care,” Gottlieb said.
Customers, or patients, have little say in their healthcare costs.
“It’s not like comparing surgeons’ fees,” Biggs said.
Economists say this structure makes the health care sector nearly unique among American industries.
“In some ways, the health care industry is like a defense contractor,” Ghilarducci says. “Their main customer, the federal government, has deep pockets.”
