Salary

Average Salary: $157,610

Expected Lifetime Earnings: $5,858,000


It's good money, but not relative to other doctors. You'll be making somewhere around $100,000 a year to start, and while that's certainly not chump change, after a dozen years of school following high school, you'd think you could make more than Esmerelda who runs three local beauty salons. But you won't. And you won't have a lot of options outside of the profession to really make bigger money (source), so be sure you love the kids before you take the gig.

After you've been at it a while, you may move up into the $140,000-$160,000 range, but again—this is a small upper range when compared to others with medical degrees. You can expect to make closer to $170,000 if you're a general pediatrician in an outpatient care center, slightly less if you're a specialty pediatrician or are employed by a medical or surgical hospital, and more in the $120,000 range if employed by a college or university (source).

If you're a stay-at-home pediatrician who's just hoping to pick up some foot traffic from outside your Ohio home in the suburbs, you may be making more in the $1,000 range. That should be enough to buy yourself a lifetime supply of Turtle Wax...and not much else.