Physician Compensation in Canada

There are many factors a physician needs to consider when choosing their specialty and where to work. What type of work you enjoy, compensation levels, personal and family considerations, and where you want to live are all important factors to consider. In this post, we look into physician compensation in Canada and explore physician clinical payments in different specialties and provinces.

A quick note about the data

We’re sharing data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). It represents total clinical payments from provincial and federal healthcare insurance plans from 2018-2019. It doesn’t include private payments. We have a link at the bottom to the CIHI page here.

How much do Canadian physicians earn?

In 2018-2019, the average Canadian physician earned gross clinical payments of $347,352. Per physician average gross clinical payments increased over the past 5 years by 3.4% or 0.69% per year. Family physicians earned gross clinical payments of $279,344. Specialists earned $399,364. There were significant variations for these averages by province. Below we have a table that summarizes gross clinic payments to physicians by province and specialty.

What if I work Full-Time?

The average gross clinical payments per physician is helpful, but it can be misleading because not all physicians work full-time. The average is calculated by taking the total gross clinical payments to physicians divided by the number of physicians working. A province with more part-time physicians will have a lower average clinical payment amount that might not reflect what a full-time physician could earn. A better measure is the gross clinical payment per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). This measure provides an average gross clinical payments for a physician working full-time hours. When measured this way, there is less divergence in physician earnings between provinces.

How do Different Provinces Compare?

Using the Full time equivalent numbers, we can compare physicians earnings across provinces. Alberta has the highest paid physicians, earning 16% more than the national average. Nova Scotia and Ontario have the lowest paid physicians, earning on average 9% less than the national average. Some provinces have different ratios to the average between family medicine and specialists. For example, in Quebec, family medicine practitioners earn 11% below the national average but specialists earn 2% above.

What are the differences between Specialties?

There are differences between specialties and across provinces within specialties. Below is a table of gross clinical earnings by specialty and province based on Full-Time Equivalents.

Of interest to many physicians is to compare what other physicians in the same specialty earn in other provinces. Below is a table comparing physicians earnings to the average by province within a specialty. There are variations, particularly in family medicine. Family medicine practitioners in Alberta earn 20% above the national average while in Ontario and BC family physicians earn 9% and 7% below the national average respectively.

Other Compensation Considerations

• Private Billings: The data above reflects gross clinical earnings as paid by public health insurance plans. For some physician groups, this is a pretty accurate representation of compensation but for other physician groups, private claims are a large portion of their overall compensation and these amounts aren’t reflected in the comparisons.
• Operating Costs: Gross clinical billings represents what a physician bills, but it doesn’t reflect what a physicians earns. Physicians who run their own clinics have rent, staff, equipment, insurance and other operating costs. A study in Ontario estimated overhead costs for physicians ran from 12.5% in emergency medicine to 42.5% in ophthalmology.

Even within a specialty, there is substantial variation in overhead costs. The study provided the following table of select specialties to give a sense of the range:

• Non-Compensation Considerations: Compensation is only 1 factor when considering where to life or what specialty to pursue. It’s perhaps obvious, but we would be remiss not to point out that other factors are important to include:
  • What type of work do you enjoy?
  • Where do you like living?
  • How much do you want to work?
  • What type of lifestyle do you want to have?
  • Do you enjoy aspects of running your own business?
  • What type of work do you want to do as you get older in your career?

These factors need to be balanced in making the right personal choice for your career.

Conclusion

Compensation varies considerably among different specialties and different provinces. It’s helpful to be aware of the compensation landscape and understanding how compensation works in your specialty. If you have any questions or comments let us know – we’re always happy to hear from our readers!