Highest Paying Career is Anesthesiology?

[dolphinboy]

I was reading a California Wage Survey recently and I learned that the highest paying occupation, on average, is Anesthesiologist. About $200K per year if you were wondering. Here's the info http://stats.bls.gov/oes/2002/oes_ca.htm.

So does this make sense to you? I know that doctors are the highest paid group but what makes the Anesthesiologist worth more than a Cardiac Surgeon? Or a Brain Surgeon for that matter?

Or is the key word here "average", meaning that while some cardiac surgeons make more money, they start out making less than anesthesiologists and therefore on average they don't make as much.

[Shagnasty]

I found this that says the median for the whole U.S. is $266,000 for them.. Your figure seems kind of low.

I believe they make so much money because they get to move from one high dollar case to the next all day long. They get to focus on people that people that are having major procedures done and that represents $$$. They can also just walk away from patients after it is all over whereas the surgeon has to spend time with followups, pre-surgery appointments etc. A brain surgeon may make a lot of money on a complicated brain surgery but they don't do those assembly-line fashion all day long.

Anesthesiology is a risky and complicated specialty as well. They can easily kill people if they don't understand the patient's risks and weaknesses. They have to know how to put people under who are already greatly weakened already.

I suppose somebody has to be on top. Radiologists make a lot of money too for similar reasons. The high-stakes nature of their job combined with the efficiency of working with lots of patients = bucks.

[alice_in_wonderland]

Humm - my understanding is that here in Canada it's dermatologists.

[Shagnasty]

Originally Posted by alice_in_wonderland

Humm - my understanding is that here in Canada it's dermatologists.

They come in pretty high here in the U.S. as well at $194,000. I always sid that if I was going to be a doctor, I would be a dermatologist. Very little on call time, get to work in a regular office, and many cases are minor.

However, dermatologists do have to break the news to otherwise healthy people that they will be dead within 5 years from melanoma because of a mole that get out of control. That can be tough.