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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Do US doctors have it tougher than physicians in other countries? Several of Medscape's international sites (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico) surveyed their physician members to learn about their salary and job satisfaction. The information presented in this slideshow comes from Medscape's US Physician Compensation Report and from compensation reports on Medscape UK, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico, all published this year.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
All amounts are shown in US dollars. Conversions have been made from pounds sterling (United Kingdom), euros (Germany, France, Spain), pesos (Mexico), and reais (Brazil), based on the exchange rate on August 1, 2019.
US physicians earn far more than doctors in other countries. In the European countries shown here, medical school is either free (with minor administrative fees) or far less expensive than in the United States. Differences in cost of living also play a large role in salary. For example, average rent in Mexico is about 75% less than in the United States.
For all countries, compensation for employed doctors included salary, bonus, and profit sharing; and for self-employed physicians, earnings after taxes and business expenses but before income taxes.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
The costs shown cover an annual average range for tuition and administrative fees but do not include room and board. Costs vary within each country; for example, in the United States, medical students pay much more for state school tuition if they're from out of state. Within the United Kingdom, medical education costs more in England than it does in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Germany, medical education is basically free (there are administrative fees), but recently a few private universities have started to offer a medical school education. In Spain, as in the other countries, public medical schools are very inexpensive but private institutions cost much more.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
The United States has the most expensive medical schools, and completion of medical education takes longer here than in most other countries surveyed.
Mexico requires graduates to work in a government service hospital or clinic for a set time after completing their public medical school education.
In most European countries noted here, medical school is a 6-year program that can start immediately after school.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Physician salaries differ by gender in all of the countries surveyed. Of note, the gender pay gaps are within a similar range: United States: 25%; United Kingdom: 26%; Germany: 20%; France: 21%; Brazil: 29%; Mexico: 23%. It has been suggested that the gender pay gap stems from leftover attitudes in a historically male-dominated profession, which fails to make allowances for maternity leave and family care responsibilities. Matt Hancock, secretary of state for Health & Social Care, UK, said that this inequality can no longer be tolerated: "Gender equality is the only way we can hope to build a National Health Service (NHS) team fit for the future."
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
As in the United States, the male-female pay gap is larger among specialties than in primary care. The percentage differences: United States: 33%; United Kingdom: 38%; Germany: 47%; France: 43%; Spain: 19%; Brazil: 32%; Mexico: 24%. According to an article in British newspaper the Independent, male doctors dominate the best-paid specialists. In the United States, obstetrics/gynecology and pediatrics have the highest concentration of women physicians (61% and 60%, respectively).
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
It's no surprise that physicians with the highest earnings are most satisfied with their income. US doctors earn the most, followed by physicians in Germany, and these two groups are the most satisfied with their income. Although physicians in Spain do not earn the least among the countries, they are least likely to feel fairly compensated.
"In the UK, increasing patient workloads and an increasing number of hours spent at work to accommodate this, but without a corresponding increase in earnings, is probably the main reason why physicians don't feel fairly compensated," Dr Rob Hicks, GP and media personality in the UK, told Medscape. "The amount of administrative tasks has increased in past years, this work often having to be done outside of work hours, which means it's being done during personal 'unpaid' time."
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Physicians in France spend among the greatest number of hours seeing patients. One contributing factor may be staff reductions that have led to unacceptable workloads. This past spring, emergency room doctors and nurses at dozens of hospitals in France held protests and strikes, complaining about cuts in funding, reductions in the number of hospital beds, and a reduction in medical staff. They asserted that these budget cuts are endangering patients' lives.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
At least half of physicians in many countries spent between 10 and 24 hours per week on paperwork, on top of the hours spent seeing patients. Germany topped the charts in terms of administrative tasks and paperwork. For US physicians, much of the burden is related to EHRs and reporting requirements of several government programs.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Overall, most physicians feel that they are performing their job well. Still, budgetary and bureaucratic factors in health systems can prevent doctors from giving the kind of care that they want to provide and doing their job the way they think is best for patients. Insurance denials in both the United States and other countries have been cited as contributing to pressure and frustration for physicians.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Both in the United States and abroad, gratitude for and relationships with patients, as well as being good at what they do and solving problems, were very rewarding to physicians. German physicians, however, were most likely to cite being good at their jobs/solving problems, while Brazilian physicians were most likely to select making good money at a job they like.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
French and German physicians were most likely to name rules and regulations as the biggest burdens of practicing medicine. US and UK doctors also made known their frustrations in this area. Doctors in England specifically named dealing with NHS staffing levels and workload as their greatest challenge (50%). Other challenges cited in the UK: getting fair reimbursement from private insurers and having so many NHS rules and regulations.
More physicians in France, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico said that working long hours was a major challenge.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Despite their problems, overall, physicians would stick with their chosen field if they had to do it over.
The United States and Germany had the highest percentage of physicians who would choose medicine again as a career, while the United Kingdom had the lowest. "Repeated changes to NHS policy, ever-increasing workloads and administration responsibilities, and time pressures have sapped the energy and enthusiasm of many doctors, leaving them feeling taken advantage of, undervalued, unsupported, and burned out," said Rob Hicks.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
US physicians had among the highest levels of satisfaction with their chosen specialty. Those most satisfied were ophthalmologists (96%), orthopedists (93%), and gastroenterologists (93%). In the UK, specialists (79%) were more likely to be satisfied with their specialty than were GPs (63%). Least likely to choose their specialty again were those in internal medicine (62%), family medicine (68%), and nephrology (70%).
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Each country's survey had a different proportion of male and female respondents as well as different percentages of physicians by specialty. For more information on the demographics of each country's compensation survey respondents, please see individual country survey reports.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
In this slideshow, label values on charts are rounded, but rankings and calculations are based on raw data to avoid rounding errors.
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International Physician Compensation Report 2019: Do US Physicians Have It Best?
Leslie Kane, MA; Bernardo Schubsky, MD; Tim Locke; Maria Kouimtzi; Veronique Duqueroy; Claudia Gottschling; Mariana Lopez; Leoleli Schwartz | September 16, 2019 | Contributor Information
Almost 20,000 physicians in over 30 specialties told us how much they earn, whether they are satisfied with their jobs, and whether their income has gone up or down.Medscape Features Slideshows, April 2019
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Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.
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Leslie Kane, MA
Senior Director
Medscape Business of Medicine
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