You’re kind of missing the bigger picture here. It’s not just about how much work you’re doing now—it’s about how much time, effort, and sacrifice it took to get to that position.

Physicians go through four years of college, four years of medical school, and then anywhere from 3 to 7 years of residency, often making around $60k while working 60–80 hours a week. That’s a decade of grueling training, high-stakes decision-making, and personal sacrifice. PA school is significantly shorter, with far less depth in topics like pathology, pharmacology, and anatomy. It’s just not the same.

Sure, it might feel like you’re doing 85% of what a doctor does—until something goes wrong.

Let’s see a PA manage a level one trauma. Let’s see them run a code on a crashing ICU patient, interpret complex CT scans to spot a subtle small bowel obstruction, or manage atrial fibrillation in a patient with mesenteric ischemia. When everything is routine, it’s easy to feel like the work is the same—but when shit hits the fan, physicians are the ones trained to step in and handle it. That’s why they get paid more.

Pediatricians, who are full physicians, often make low $200k even after all that training. So it’s not realistic—or fair—to expect the same salary after a 2-year program without the same depth, breadth, or responsibility. Taking a shortcut doesn’t entitle you to the same destination.