What is the average beginning salary for a doctor?

Answer 1

As someone who has been involved in the profession for nearly a decade, I can give you an answer with some caveats. The first thing to know is that most NDs end up opening up their own clinic. Some do work on a contract basis at a facility but this is less common. Even less common is a salaried position as an ND - or any physician for that matter. A typical ND's first year of income is often quite small because they are usually starting a practice without a patient base and don't have insurance companies to put them "in network" (varies by state) to generate a patient base. The first 3-6 months, their practice may operate at a loss until they have enough patient volume to cover their expenses. Expenses are generally quite low compared to many other medical offices so once patient volume picks up, the income potential is generally quite good. That said, a first year in private practice might only result in a $20k-$30k income. Five years it is more typically $60k-$70k and it continues to grow from there. This is often satisfactory for many NDs who tend to value a work life balance more than most. NDs will often trade off long hours for more personal time. However, NDs who are more motivated to build their practices and work 45-50 hours a week can reasonably expect to make $80k-$200k (depending on where you live, your bedside manner and your business acumen).

I can tell you from experience that making over $200k/year, practicing in a general practice setting in a major metropolitan area where NDs are licensed, is very achievable. Also, the profession is developing more specialities in areas related to orthopedics, cancer, etc and some of those NDs are doing even better than that.

In the end, it is really about what the ND wants out of their career. Its a tremendous profession full of intelligent, forward-thinking, genuine, beautiful and caring people and I'm glad to be part of it!

Answer 2

It's different in different countries.