Pediatric Orthopaedic Fellowship Compensation: Are You Paying Your Fellow Fairly?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Health Economics

Background:

• Rising medical education costs and student debt necessitate evaluating fellowship compensation.
• Pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellows face decisions influenced by debt, financial obligations, cost-of-living, and salary.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare salaries across pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellowship programs nationwide.
• To analyze the impact of local cost-of-living on fellowship compensation.

Main Methods:

• Calculated cost-of-living adjusted salaries (COLAS) by dividing program salary by the city's cost-of-living index.
• Ranked programs based on both actual and COLAS.
• Analyzed changes in salary ranks after cost-of-living adjustment.

Main Results:

• The average 2024 pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellowship salary is $84,248, reduced to $71,229 after cost-of-living adjustment.
• Actual salary rank and COLAS rank showed a weak negative correlation (R=-0.36).
• Rankings shifted by an average of 17.5 positions when adjusted for cost-of-living.

Conclusions:

• Adjusting for local cost-of-living significantly alters the perceived value of pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellowship salaries.
• Salaries range from $50,742 to $91,132 after cost-of-living adjustment.
• Eight fellowship programs offer salaries below the national average for all professions when adjusted for cost-of-living.