The Data

To answer these questions, I turned to survey data from the American Association of Medical Colleges, whose annual survey covers topics such as duty hours, working conditions, and average salary among other things.  A portion of that data is presented below:

The 2008 Mean stipends in United States for a house-staff officer from any specialty:

Furthermore, you can see below that over the last ten years, there has been a
gradual increase in PGY-1 resident salary on average of about 3.1% annually:

Note: this data is based on a national survey by the AAMC

While I cannot speak for your salary, I can tell you that the salary compensation at the Washington Hospital Center, in Washington, DC, where I'm completing my training, appears on to be slightly below the national average.  At Washington Hospital Center, the podiatric surgery residents are grouped among all other resident physicians training within the MedStar system, and therefore have the same salary and benefits as our allopathic and osteopathic brethren.

It should be noted that residency salary varies by geographic location, which only makes sense, considering the variations in cost of living throughout the United States.  For example, residents in New York City have a greater base salary, although when you consider the added cost of living, they are likely to be at (or below) the overall national average. 

Conclusion

Parity among podiatric surgery and other medical specialties has become an increasing theme in recent years as our profession continues to develop and mature, and this survey data seems to suggest that, at least with regard to compensation, podiatric surgical residents are being treated as equals.   I am certain that all of you have heard your attendings wax poetic and give their “when I was a resident” speech regarding this or that hardship –I know I certainly have—and occasionally the topic has been that of compensation during residency training.  Certainly there was a time when podiatric surgeons in training were treated very poorly, and compensated equally so.   Are things really “better” now then they used to be?  Absolutely.  Can it be better still?  Certainly.

Despite our best efforts at parity, we are still a many-fragmented profession—both from without and from within. Just this week, a ‘new’ surgical board, the ASPS was announced, to fill the ‘gap’ following the separation of ACFAS and the APMA. Continued fragmentation has the potential to decentralize and destabilize us if we fail to unite and make our voices heard.  As a profession, we need to move toward GREATER standardization both in scope-of-practice as well as in our residency training, for it is once we have achieved these things that we will have the parity we so ardently seek.  PRESENT Courseware has done wonders for standardizing the didactic lecture curriculum at podiatric residency programs, large and small, across the country, helping to level the playing field and give all residents that same access to high quality teaching. We need to continue our efforts to standardize residency training.

But we ARE winning the battle in our residency training.  The provided survey data suggests that, despite being paid poorly for the number of hours we work during our residency training, we are being paid EQUALLY poorly as compared to allopathic and osteopathic residents, which is a step in the right direction.

It is at times like these that I am reminded of an ancient Chinese proverb which states: “The longest journey begins with the first step.”  As a profession, our first steps have been taken –our journeys begun.  It will be upon us to see it through.

As always, we love hearing from YOU.  Please contact us,  give us your opinion on our compensation as residents and continue to take those “steps” in the right direction!