All Personnel, Even Janitors, Earn More In A Medical Setting: Average Medical Wages Grew 18 Percent From 2005 To 2011

From The Dallas Morning News, "Eli Lehrer: Your doctor makes too much money" by Eli Lehrer:

A physician practicing in a primary care setting, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, earned an average of just over $200,000 in 2010, while specialists averaged over $355,000, the highest of any professional category tracked. By comparison, lawyers average just over $110,000, airline pilots about $92,000, and chartered actuaries — who calculate risk for insurance companies and must pass complex exams longer and arguably more difficult than the medical boards — about $150,000.***Registered nurses and dental hygienists, who need only associate degrees, earn about $70,000 a year. This is about as much as degreed computer programmers. And it’s significantly more than high school teachers and forensic scientists, who need master’s degrees but earn less than $60,000 on average.

Wage disparities exist at all levels of the health care industry. Even nonmedical professionals like janitors tend to earn more in health care settings than those working elsewhere. An extensive report from the Brookings Institution sums up the evidence: "Health care pays higher-than-average wages regardless of workers’ skills and demographic characteristics."***Between 2005 and 2011, as overall average wages barely kept pace with inflation (with rising health costs making real take-home pay flat for many workers), average medical wages grew a healthy 18 percent, rising from just over $62,000 to almost $73,000. The American Hospital Association estimates that two-thirds of medical costs are attributable to wages and benefits.