By Lisa Hoffman - April 18, 2016
"Emergency Medicine News’ own survey delves into all the factors that affect the day-to-day practice of emergency physicians. We’ll look not just at salary, but at how the specialty breaks down by gender, age, years in practice, and much more.
By far, more emergency physicians responding to the EMN survey are board certified than those who are not — 88 percent vs. 12 percent. That flops back the other way in all higher salary categories, however, reaching the largest disparity among those who earn more than $350,000: Twenty percent of those board certified make more than $350,000, a salary category that aligns with those EPs who are working as heads of the department and residency directors.
Sixteen percent of those not board certified made more than $350,000, a percentage that is still higher than any other board certified EP in any other salary range. Overall, board certified EPs earn more than non-board certified EPs in half of the 11 salary categories (one was a tie), but non-board certified EPs outnumber board certified EPs on the two lowest salary rungs: under $100,000 and $100,000-$150,000.
The number of hours emergency physicians reported working in our survey was somewhat surprising. The variance between the fewest hours worked a week — under 40 — with the highest — more than 65 — was astounding. Forty-six percent of EPs said they work less than 40 hours a week, which was a higher percentage than any other category of hours worked. Fourteen percent of those said they made $200,001 to $225,000 a year, but EPs reporting less than 40 hours a week also fell into higher salary categories as well: 13 percent each in the categories of $225,001-$250,000, $250,001-$275,000, and more than $350,000.
The biggest surprise, however, came from a small handful of EPs (n=34) who work more than 65 hours a week. Fourteen percent of those earn $100,000-$150,000 a year, and 24 percent make $225,001-$250,000. Twenty-nine percent of those making more than $350,000 a year also reported working more than 65 hours a week.2