Section 6 -- Earned Income

This section presents several tables and figures that illustrate the full-time salaries of psychologists within medical school settings. These data can be found in Tables 14-89 and Figures 4-17. The data have been analyzed by department type, academic rank, years since doctorate, geographic region, and gender. Where possible (given sufficient Ns) the data also have been broken down by base salary, clinical income, other additional income, and total income. Salaries of non-tenured research faculty only are presented in Table 89.

Some general conclusions may be drawn from the data. Namely, psychologists employed within Traditional Medical Specialities (e.g., cardiology, oncology, obstetrics/gynecology, radiology) were among the highest paid psychologists within medical schools, and those in departments of pediatrics had the lowest median salaries. As expected, salaries steadily increased with increasing academic rank. Full professors earned the highest income, followed by associate professors, and then assistant professors. Further, also as anticipated, salaries generally increased with increasing years of experience.

All full-time-employed respondents were categorized into regions and metropolitan areas on the basis of zip code. Salaries varied according to geographic region of the United States and selected metropolitan areas. Tables 49-71 should only be used to make general comparisons among the different regions and metropolitan areas, and should not be applied to individual salaries. This is because it is likely that median salaries are affected by differences in cost of living, as well as other factors such as department type, academic rank, years of experience, and gender.

Generally, the median salaries of men were notably higher than that of women, with only few exceptions. This was typically the case regardless of department type, academic rank, and years since doctorate (i.e., years of experience). Also noteworthy was that, for men, salaries steadily increased with increasing years of experience. In contrast, salaries for women did not share the predicted steady trend of increasing with years of experience.

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