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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 29, 2025

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US doctors do make good money, but most specialties are making way less than the numbers bandied about in this thread.

Source

Occupation2024 median pay (k$/a)
Audiologist92
Chiropractor79
Dentist179
Optometrist135
Pharmacist137
Physical therapist101
Physician or surgeonOff the chart*
Podiatrist153
Veterinarian126

*More than 239. The occupation page gives per-specialty mean (not median) numbers ranging from 222 to 451.

*More than 239. The occupation page gives per-specialty mean (not median) numbers ranging from 222 to 451.

Since there are claims about numbers relative to the federal general schedule, the 2026 general schedule location with the highest locality pay tops out at 197. That is the max, not the mean or median. If all doctors were forced onto the GS, that means everyone not at the max would have to be shoved somewhere below that.

...or they'd have to make a separate "doctors are special" schedule, meaning that they wouldn't have to raise all federal employee wages alongside raising doctor wages.

Many specialties have average salaries in the 200s. Some make even less than that. Many average in the 300s. Those making over 500 are rare and are generally procedural specialties that are paying a cost to get paid that much (such as extra years of training).

All of this in the setting of years and years of training, shitty work life balance, and so on.

And that's not taking into account things like NYC - where nurse and physician take home is pretty comparable.

So like I said, exaggerated numbers downthread.