why are doctors paid more than teachers?

Question

tell me

Answer 1

Here are some real factors.... involving a bit of a history lesson:

1. Teachers deal with a person's quality of life in the distant future (skills being taught will be used 5 to 20 years later). A doctor deals with life, NOW.

2. Health has always been rather mandatory and urgently desired. Until a few decades ago, education was optional. Most people had a 3rd, 6th, or 8th grade education at best. Only those going on to become business owners or professionals and therefore were college bound went on through high school. Health is never optional. Most people in the United States are unaware of this now, and consider childhood education to be a right rather than a privilege (even though in most areas of the world apprenticeship and manual laborer tracks are still very much the norm).

3. That "optional" aspect of education, until the middle of the 20th century, meant that anyone who was not a natural academic learner left school and either took on an apprenticeship for skilled crafts, or became a manual laborer. Teachers did not need to have much training in order to teach the "natural" learners, at least until the college prep stage. Even there, the students by that point had good study skills and were motivated, so the demands of a teacher were relatively simple. A century ago, a person could be a teacher for children with a high school diploma, and only needed a college degree for high school and college instuctor positions. Those college degrees only involved subject knowledge training, not any sort of deep involvement in actual teaching strategies or methology. This was because STUDENTS WHO HAD DIFFICULTY LEARNING WERE NOT TAUGHT ACADEMICS.

4. As academic education became mandatory, and then achievement of all students, including the students with extreme difficulties, became important, teacher training needs started to climb. Teachers today have to be highly skilled and flexible diagnosticians, curriculum designers, instructors, psychologists, social activity coordinators, and social workers, all at once. No child, regardless of learning ability, can fail to make progress or the teacher is blamed regardless of any other factors affecting that child (motivation, personal interests, any disabilities, home environment, etc.).

However, our society's perceptions of what a teacher does and what value teaching has did not keep up with the real and actual demands of the profession. Over the past 50 years, teachers have been expected to teach more and more students, with increasing levels of interfering factors to their learning, with less and less comparative resources.

Doctors earn what they do because they can have a patient roster in the hundreds, and charge $50 or more for 10 minutes of service ($300/hour or more, before business expenses are taken out). Doctors are paid through direct personal payment and through insurance companies...in other words, through private funding. They only really see a patient to diagnose and prescribe... daily care is left to the patient, the patient's family, and in critical need, nursing staff (at a huge expense to the patient or insurance company).

Teachers earn what they do because they have a student roster of 25 (early elementary) to 200 (secondary school), and are paid off property taxes through the state, by grouchy taxpayers who don't want to actually shell out to ensure truly effective ratios. Teachers provide 6 hours of instruction to these students per day, for 180 days per year (add weekends to those days to show number of weeks served directly in the classroom is 36 weeks), plus spend the remaining weeks moonlighting at other jobs to make up their income problems and/or take professional development classes to keep their licensures.

A doctor can state that nothing can be done for a particular illness, provide pain and comfort remediation, and be seen as doing "everything he/she can." A teacher facing an "impossible to cure" case is criticized for being incompetent.


If a doctor had to pay the costs of running his/her practice off a patient roster of 25 patients, he/she would be charging each individual person about $30,000 just to be "on call." States spend, on average, about $5,500 a year per student for all building, materials, and staffing costs.

But people keep complaining that the cost is too high. Yet they want increasing levels of results with less resources and more and more difficult student needs, abilities, etc. "Here, now that you can rock climb, go climb Everest without any equipment except this one rope and this backpack...what do you mean you want spikes for safety, arctic clothes for warmth, and food to eat? How rude!"

Answer 2

The main reason is because of the education that a Doctor must go though. First, it is more competitve to go to medical school than it is to get into Education. Secondly, teachers require only a first dregree and possibly another year of education. Doctors require a whole separate degree, rotations and then an inturnship. Thirdly, the feels for Med school are tremedus compared to Education. (They need a higher salary to pay off Student loans). Fourth, the degree is much more difficult. Fifth, it is more volitle. There are alot of drop outs. Doctors need to take qualifying exams. If they fail, they have to start from scratch elsewhere. Lastly, when doing their rotation, they work long hours and are very stressful. During this time, they get paid peanuts.

Another reason is that are fewer spots in the workforce for Doctors, therefore there is a higher demand.

Answer 3

doctors have to go through a 4 year pre-med degree before they can go through 4 years of medical school, a year of UNPAID service as a medical intern, do 3-6 years more if they wanted to specialize on something, they have to keep learning new stuff even if they have graduated school and have done all the training they can get...they go on 24 hour duties...you cannot refuse emergencies, they always have to choose to do the right thing...imagine even if a patient could turn out to be a criminal...ever watch Patch Adams? If doctors failed in work...it would mean the life of a patient. if teachers failed at work the result is someone dumb but could still survive the outside world. Teachers take a 4 year college degree in education...maybe earn a masters or a Phd if they wanted to try harder...So there its lengthy...you do get it that I AM A DOCTOR!

Answer 4

Why are a lot of people paid more than teachers? Doctors do deserve the pay..they work hard and save lives. My question is why are baseball players (and other sports) and celebrities paid millions as opposed to teachers, EMT's, and other professions that are pertinent to our society?

Answer 5

The job doctors do is valued more than what teachers do. Teachers must get a degree, and continue their education as well, but education is not considered as important as healing.
I don't begrudge the salary made by doctors so much as the salary made by professional athletes. What contribution to society do athletes make?

Answer 6

If you are referring to monetary compensation that they receive from those who employ them, consider supply and demand. If you are referring to non-monetary compensation received by the profession, consider saving the life of everyone the life saved will yet touch. The payment is astronomical for both. Doctors are just reimbursed more quickly and with more tangible currency for efforts extended. Teachers cannot spend all of their rewards.

Answer 7

Doctors in our country are not employed by the government. Teachers are.

Answer 8

I have no clue-- i have just as many years in teaching and schooling as they do and I had to get a doctorate to teach in higher education. They don't work weekends like we do, they don't work outside of office hours the way we do for the most part. I don't get summers off either-- I am trying to get tenure so my a$$ is sitting in a stuffy office researching to I can get tenure.

Answer 9

because teachers work maybe half the time doctors do , and although a teachers job is crucial it is easy and repetitive . nobody will asy a teachers job is more important that a doctor's , i rather be stupid than dead

Answer 10

Duhh.... they need a doctors degree and in reality they have to continue their education even well after they graduate to keep up with the new diseases and technology being use.