Anesthesiologist Salary and Schooling
The first time I did a research on anesthesiologist salary and anesthesiologist schooling, I was a bit confused by the variety of data I saw. Each source was saying something different – it would have been okay if the discrepancies were small, say $20,000 or $30,000 a year (small for this profession), but they weren’t. You can find a website that sets the median anesthesiologist salary below $200,000, and another that declares it as being more than $300,000.
But how much do anesthesiologists really make per year? I know for a fact that some anesthesiologists earn more than $400,000 annually, but do most of them make that kind of money?
Anesthesiologists make six figures every year. Everyone knows it. But what kind of six figures?
In 2011, survey results conducted by the government revealed that anesthesiologists earned roughly $112.96 per hour, on average. Using the typical 40-hour workweek calculation would indicate that they make $234,950 a year, and this is the kind of figure that is often posted online. But the fact is, anesthesiologists typically work more than 40 hours a week. So if calculated on a 60-hour workweek, they would have earned $352,435 in 2011.
If you want to make projections for anesthesiologist salary in 2012, you simply have to consult the trending over the last few years. Survey results for 2012 are not going to be released until 2012 is over (in the case of the results for 2011, they were released in April of 2012). And judging on these trends, the average anesthesiologist would probably earn the same income he did in 2011.
Anesthesiologist pay is higher for graduates of more prestigious schools, but actually there’s not much difference because just the fact that you can become an anesthesiologist proves that you are intelligent.
So being an anesthesiologist itself is very prestigious, so you don’t have to worry what school you graduated from because as long as you’re an anesthesiologist you will have a high anesthesiologist salary. That’s given.
It’s not like an engineering school where you will be judged based on the kind of school you are in. So it’s not like that.
Just for the sake of clarification, some people will say that the average anesthesiologist salary is very high, as high as $400,000 every year, but actually that’s not the case. Yes, anesthesiologists earn six figures every year but it’s only in the $200,000 range. See also Pediatric-Anesthesiologist Salary.
