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According to the United State Department of Labor, 3 or 4% of practicing doctors are orthopedic surgeons. There are approximately 20,400 actively practicing and resident orthopedic surgeons in the United States, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook (2009–2010), among of which 10 percent are women. Across the United States the mean annual base income for all surgeons is $225,390 as of May 2010, with orthopedic surgeons earning less. However, this figure represents only a portion of an orthopedic surgeon’s total compensation package and additional benefits. The median base of orthopedic surgeons is at an estimate of $411,974 as of Nov. 2011 based on surveys from employers and HR departments across the United States.
State and regional location also plays a big role when it comes to salary and compensation differences. Orthopedic surgeons are very well compensated in Los Angeles, California wherein a surgeon can earn anywhere from $178,793 – $609,637 annually. Miami, Florida comes second on with a range anywhere from $120,805 – $504,367. And third is New York, New York where one can receive anywhere from $52,382 – $493,163 depending on one`s affiliations and worked hours. Bonuses can be dependent on years of experience and practice. Median bonus by year of experience is $10,279 with less than a year of experience and can reach up to $24,790, with 20 years of practice or more.
Physicians and surgeons work for long and erratic number of hours, sometimes continuously for a number of days. As reported in BLS, based on statistics from 2008, fortythree percent of surgeons work for 50 hours or more per week. They also work in between travel from office to hospitals calling and dealing with patients’ complaints and concerns on the phone, visiting patients from affiliate hospitals and attending patients in nursing facilities.
The need for physicians and surgeons is expected to grow by 22 percent within 2008 to 2018 because the aging population will force a demand on healthcare professions and of continued expansion in the field of health services. Great numbers of physicians and surgeons will be needed in rural areas where a health service is limited and health care is provided with inadequate services.
