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Comment by gramie | Hacker News Reader

I have two nieces who are Canadian but have completed medical school in Australia. They are currently in the equivalent of internship, heading for residency.

They work 40-hour weeks (compared to 60-90 in Canada), and are paid overtime when they go over. Their salaries are $100,000/year+ (equivalent to USD $66,000) which seems to be fine for them and more than they would receive in Canada.

The post-medical-school phase seems to go on longer (minimum 5 years) than in Canada, which may account for some of the difference.

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Pity that $100k is quickly approaching unliveable for a single young person in Australia if they want any sort of secure future.

For a pre-residency internship that seems pretty decent, though.

If you can advise them, I hope for their sake they’ll move to the States because they’re underpaid in most so-called first world countries.

As a doctor in Australia you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. This is a first year salary. The equivalent in the US is around 45-55,000 USD annually FOR THE ENTIRE RESIDENCY, no overtime pay.

Not accurate, at all, on several levels. In Australia you'll be making a six digit income as a doctor (and medicine is a five year undergrad degree), you won't have six digit student loans, and the AMA's lobbying makes it quite difficult to transition your medical degree to the US, even from another "so-called first world country".

How much do you think medical residents get paid in the US?

As I mentioned, this is more than they would receive in Canada (and, because they are paid for overtime, weekends, etc., their actual salary would be significantly higher).

Their father is a GP and worked in the U.S. for about a decade. He was happy to return to Canada and not have to deal with HMOs and all the other crap. His clinic here has a single office worker handling billing for 5 or 6 doctors; in Indiana, they had at least one per doctor.

He actually said that his salary in Canada ended up being higher because of the lower administration costs, lower malpractice insurance, insurance companies refusing to pay the full invoices, etc.

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