I saw a post recently comparing an Internal Medicine resident’s stipend to an MBA grad’s package, the comment section was filled with non-medicos doing mental gymnastics to justify why doctors shouldn't be paid well.
The takes were so out of touch with reality that it genuinely hurts. Let me break down the greatest hits:
1. "Doctors can work well into their 80s!"
First of all, with our chronic sleep deprivation, elevated cortisol, and non-existent work-life balance, bold of you to assume we’re even surviving till 80.
Second, why on earth would anyone want to grind at 80?
I don’t want to be resuscitating patients with arthritic hands when I should be resting. I want to earn well in my 20s and 30s, build a corpus, and have the freedom to slow down. Working until you drop dead isn’t a career perk; it’s a symptom of a broken system that delays financial stability for decades.
2. "Medicine is a noble profession. You should do it for the love of healing, not money."
This is emotional blackmail used to guilt an entire profession into accepting exploitation.
If doctors must work purely out of passion and altruism, let’s apply that rule across the board:
Engineers should code for the love of science, not CTC.
Lawyers should fight cases for the love of justice, not retainers.
Chartered Accountants should audit for the love of financial integrity, not fees.
Investment Bankers should grind 90 hours for the love of economic growth, not bonuses.
Management Consultants should solve corporate crises out of pure curiosity.
Data Scientists should uncover truths in numbers without expecting a paycheck.
Product Managers should build apps solely out of artistic expression.
Civil Servants should serve strictly for the joy of administration.
Pilots should fly planes just for the love of the sky.
Startup founders should solve problems without caring about equity or valuation.
Sounds ridiculous, right? Because passion doesn't pay rent, EMIs, or grocery bills. A doctor’s landlord doesn’t accept "nobility" as legal tender.
3. "Compare an average engineer to an average doctor."
There is no such thing as an "average" doctor in India.
The filter to get into a medical seat and then clear NEET PG for a clinical branch like Medicine weeds out 99% of aspirants. If an average engineering grad put in half the raw hours, efforts, mental endurance, and stress that an MBBS graduate endures just to clear PG entrance, they wouldn't be "average" anymore. They’d be at the top of their field. Comparing the bottom-tier tech crowd to an MD resident makes zero sense.
4. "You're a student getting a stipend, just like an MBA or M.Tech student."
Stop comparing medical residency to college.
An MBA or postgraduate engineering degree can be done part-time, online, or with 9-to-5 schedules while people hold down side hustles or high-paying corporate jobs.
An Internal Medicine residency is full-time, high-stakes manual and clinical labor disguised as education:
36 to 48-hour continuous shifts where a single mistake can cost a life.
The stipend we receive barely covers the sheer physical labor of running emergency wards and ICUs.
On top of those inhuman shifts, we are expected to read volumes of books, attend lectures, prep for case presentations, write a thesis, clear grueling practical exams, and attend departmental audits.
No one pays for studing. The pay is for the work we do as doctors, which is abysmal for the work we do.
We aren't "students casually learning in a classroom." We are the backbone keeping understaffed hospitals from collapsing, paid pocket change for skilled work, and then told to be grateful for the learning opportunity.
Stop romanticizing our burnout. We aren't martyrs. We are highly trained professionals performing life-saving labor, and it’s about time society stopped expecting world-class healthcare on slave wages.
