Earnings of healthcare workers in hospitals, 2008

In 2008, healthcare practitioners and technical workers in the civilian sector as a whole earned $30.23 per hour, while workers in those occupations working in hospitals earned an average of $29.07 per hour.

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Full-time physicians and surgeons earned an average of $76.46 per hour in the civilian economy as a whole, but those in hospitals earned an average of $46.99 per hour, with a median of $27.56 per hour.

The average full-time hourly earnings of general internists in civilian hospitals was $30.89 per hour, which is significantly less than the earnings of internists in the civilian sector as a whole ($74.16). The relatively low earnings of general internists employed in civilian hospitals are partly the result of this occupation being heavily populated by residents, who typically work more hours per week than other full-time hospital physicians and surgeons.

Registered nurses who work full time in hospitals earned $31.93 per hour—not significantly different than the average earned by their counterparts in the civilian economy as a whole ($31.54).

These data are from the National Compensation Survey. To learn more, see "Occupational Earnings of Full-time Healthcare Workers in Civilian Hospitals, 2008," Compensation and Working Conditions Online, February 2010.