How much do you get paid during residency? After all, it’s a stage of a medical career that lasts several years, and during that time, you still need money to live on, rent an apartment, and pay for food.
It’s no surprise, then, that future medical students – who are facing from several to more than a dozen years of intensive training – want to know the answer to this question well in advance.
So, in this article, we explain how much residents typically earn and detail the factors that affect residency salaries.
Do You Get Paid During Residency or Is It Unpaid Training?
The answer is simple – in the U.S., residency is not an unpaid internship. And that’s good news for aspiring doctors. Although residency is a training-based program, residents are also full-time employees of hospitals and clinics.
This means that all physicians in residency programs are paid a regular residency salary.
Residency programs are funded primarily through Medicare, and compensation is paid as an annual salary. In addition to base pay, many residents also receive benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, and relocation assistance.
While these salaries and benefits can vary from one hospital to another, they generally fall within a fairly standard range, as outlined below.
See, what else you should know about the residency to better plan your future.
How Much Do Residents Make Depending on Specialty and Year?
The salary of residents in the United States depends primarily on the year of residency (PGY-1, PGY-2, etc.) and, to a lesser extent, on the chosen speciality. First-year residents start at a relatively low level, but their average salary increases each year.
Average resident physician salary:
- PGY-1/PGY-2 – approximately $60,000–$70,000 per year.
- PGY-3/PGY-4 – approximately $70,000–$75,000 per year.
- PGY-5 i wyżej – approximately $75,000–$95,000 per year.
The values listed above represent averages and may vary slightly depending on individual circumstances. In most cases, however, the expected average annual compensation falls within these ranges.
Importantly, specialities such as surgery, anesthesiology, and radiology tend to offer slightly higher salaries, particularly in later residency stages. Still, the differences aren’t nearly as large as they are after completing residency.
That’s why it’s a good idea to plan your medical journey ahead of time and decide early which direction you want to go. Are you going for a specialized field, which usually takes longer to train for but could pay off with a higher salary later, or are you leaning toward becoming a primary care doctor?
No matter what you choose in the end, the first steps are pretty similar. Check out what the path to become doctor could look like.
Residency Salary – What Affects How Much You Earn?
A medical resident salary is not predetermined by regulations and depends on a variety of factors, often internal to a hospital, such as its policies, location, or size.
Below you can see several factors influence how much do resident doctors make:
- Program location – large cities and regions with a high cost of living (e.g., California, New York) offer higher salaries, though it’s important to remember that living expenses are also higher.
- Year of residency – salaries increase with each year of training, but these increases are generally gradual rather than dramatic.
- Type of hospital – large hospitals or academic medical centres may offer somewhat better compensation than smaller facilities.
- Additional benefits – the final financial picture can also be affected by perks such as scholarships, housing allowances, paid shifts, or other bonuses.
Do residents get paid for the extra hours they spend in the hospital, and what are the other benefits offered by that hospital? It’s worth checking this in advance, as it will help you better plan your future financial situation.
Anyway, it’s worth keeping in mind that, despite the relatively modest salary, residency is an investment in a future career that is likely to be much more highly paid.
How CMU Prepares Students for Residency and Career Success
Our Caribbean medical university, CMU, prepares students for residency in the United States comprehensively – both academically and practically. The curriculum is designed to meet the requirements of the U.S. healthcare system and licensing exams.
For four years, we guide our students so that anyone who walks through our doors can one day practice the career they’ve chosen. We pair expert-led theoretical lessons with hands-on clinical rotations in hospitals with which we collaborate.
Our CMU students gain:
- A strong foundation in clinical medicine.
- Experience working in hospital settings.
- Preparation for the USMLE and the residency Match proces.
- Advising support for career planning.
As a result, graduates are competitive in the job market and well-prepared for paid residency positions and for further professional development in the U.S.
Do you want to start your medical career with solid basics? APPLY now, and let’s embark on this path together.
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