Average Salary for Emergency Physicians: Data Shows How Pay and Work Hours Impact Job Satisfaction

Today, Offcall is releasing new data for Emergency Medicine answering a simple yet important question: How do work hours and salary impact emergency physicians' job satisfaction?

In a recent How I Doctor podcast episode, ACEP past president Dr. Alison Haddock shared that while there are many reasons for physician burnout, one thing is clear: employee wellness initiatives and 'pizza parties' are not the panacea to burnout.

Instead, we analyzed thousands of anonymous submissions of salary data from emergency physicians across the country, and what the data below reveals is two-fold: (1) Physicians who work longer hours are more dissatisfied in their jobs and (2) Physicians who are paid more relative to their expectations are more satisfied in their jobs.

Could a large part of the solution to burnout be among the simplest?

1. ER Physicians Who Work More Tend to Report Lower Job Satisfaction

After running the numbers across thousands of data points, we found that those emergency physicians who are in the upper quartiles for hours worked are significantly less satisfied. This surprisingly simple finding supports the most basic conclusion that those physicians who are most overworked are most burned out.

2. ER Physicians Who Get Paid the Most Are Most Satisfied With Their Jobs

Here again, a surprisingly simple but powerful insights: Those physicians who are paid in the top 4th quartile relative to other emergency physicians report significantly higher job satisfaction. Although there is some variance in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quartiles, the relationship becomes clear and obvious in the 4th quartile.

3. ER Physicians Who Are Paid More Relative to What's Expected Are Most Satisfied With Their Jobs

This last chart is perhaps the most interesting to consider: We looked at how job satisfaction varies depending on how much ER physicians "should" be paid vs. how much they actually got paid and the resultant job satisfaction. We ran a regression and looked at which physicians were either below or above the line. For the purposes of this data, those ER physician who are paid more than expected based on our modeling (those in the 3rd and 4th quartiles) tended to report higher job satisfaction. By contrast, those who are paid less than what they "should" be getting paid when controlling for hours and career stage are the least satisfied in their jobs. This is yet another data point to support that what employed ER physicians are really seeking is 'fairness' and that those who are paid as expected relative to their peers and location are the most satisfied in their jobs.

To more data sets and dive into a complete Market Benchmarks dashboard for emergency medicine pay, be sure to sign up for Offcall (it's free and anonymous!) here. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter below!