What is a Pediatrician and Why is the Pediatrician Salary so High in our US Job Market

What is a Pediatrician and Why is the Pediatrician Salary so High in our US Job Market

If you possess a strong affinity for science; medicine; and mathematics, and you’re interested in a career in health care, why not consider a profession as a Pediatrician? The overall employment of Doctors in the US continues to grow at incredibly fast rates according to our most recent study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They predict that the profession should grow by 18% over the next decade. So, you know that a career in this specific industry will most likely lead to you having wonderful employment options in the job market. While Pediatricians may not earn the highest median salary of all Doctors in this country (that honor belongs to Anesthesiologists), they still earn a healthy living. The average Pediatrician salary falls right around the $216,069 mark. That figure far exceeds the yearly median for all Doctors of $187,200. This career is as lucrative and rewarding as it is open to future employment growth. We’ve decided to create this post to serve as a career spotlight for Pediatricians. We’ll focus on answering the following question: What is a Pediatrician and why is the Pediatrician Salary so high in our US job market? How much do Pediatricians make? What are the typical Pediatrician benefits in addition to the salary?

Keep in mind, Quality Education and Jobs already has an entire career webpage devoted solely to the Pediatrician profession. I invite you to read that page to discover some of the facts and figures regarding this exciting career.

I will first address the initial question (what is a pediatrician) in this post. The Bureau simply defines Pediatricians as physicians who specialize in the care of infants, children, and adolescents. They take a unique focus in the world of medicine and health. Most physicians specialize in certain practices (surgeons, psychiatry) or in certain schools of medical practice (internal medicine, etc). But, Pediatricians serve as general family practice Physicians who focus their attention solely on children and teenagers. These Physicians specifically treat infants and children who suffer from certain medical diseases or disorders. They also perform medical checkups and track a child’s growth/progression. Most commonly, Pediatricians treat children suffering from the common cold or other minor injuries. Within this Pediatric medical community, certain specialized doctors serve specific types of medical practices (such as Pediatric Surgeons). Obviously, the pediatrician salary can fluctuate among these different types of specialists. Typically speaking, the more specialized and higher demand the market creates for a certain type of specialist, the higher that specialist’s salary will be.

What is a Pediatrician and Why is the Pediatrician Salary so High in our US Job MarketAs we already discussed in the intro, most Pediatricians earn a median yearly salary of $216,069. The bottom 10% of earners cleared over $87,000 per year. So, even the lowest paid Pediatricians earn excellent salaries. You may wonder why the average Pediatrician salary is so high in our US job market. The easy answer is that Pediatricians must complete high levels of education and training. All Pediatricians serving in the U.S. currently possess a medical doctorate. To attain this, they undergo 4 years of undergraduate studies in pre-med and at least 4 years of medical school (where they typically focus on/specialize in Pediatric medicine). Pediatricians also complete a 4 year internship/residency at a hospital or family practice.

The second answer to our question regarding how much do Pediatricians make is that the Medicine and Health Care industry is red hot in our US job market. People are living longer and longer due to better understanding of science and because of high tech breakthroughs in the world of health care. This creates even greater demand for the Health Care industry as a whole. Much like common goods, as the demand of one industry sharply rises and the employment rate remains roughly the same, the pay rate for workers in this industry explode upward. Employees in the health care industry typically earn the highest salaries throughout the entire country. What’s more, medicine and health care is quickly overtaking the tech industry as the premier employment sectors of the US job market. Government subsidization and tax loopholes allow for even greater growth and profits for the private Health Insurance market. Greater financial gains among these insurance agencies lead to more revenue in the field of health care in the form of health care payments. If you decide to pursue a career in health care and you pick the best field for you, I assure you that you won’t be sorry.

Besides the lucrative average Pediatrician salary, these Physicians typically enjoy other benefits or perks with the job. Pediatrician benefits typically include the following:

  • Adaptable Career Choices – Many Pediatricians work as family Physicians. However, some specialize in certain branches of Pediatric medicine (such as Pediatric surgery). The Physicians themselves have many options. They can work in a general hospital (in the children’s wing), a children’s hospital, or (as aforementioned) a family practice.
  • Vacation Time – Pediatricians who work for hospitals or for other Pediatricians who own a practice usually receive excellent Pediatrician benefits. These places typically pay for a month to a month and a half worth of vacation time. For the business owners of the family practice (who also happen to serve as the head Pediatrician at the practice), taking time off is simply a matter of notifying your staff and patients.
  • Retirement Benefits and Health Insurance – Pediatric employers (especially hospitals) are typically quite generous with their benefits offering competitive pensions or pay grade matches for 401 K retirement plans. Pediatric employers also typically enjoy inexpensive health insurance rates due to the close nature between health care and health insurance. They pass these favorable rates along to their patients in the form of free plans or inexpensive health insurance premiums.

You can read more about the typical Pediatrician benefits at the post on Chron.com.

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