The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's 2004-2005 emergency medicine faculty salary and benefit survey

Objectives: To report on the sixth survey of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) of emergency medicine faculty salaries, benefits, work hours, and department demographics for all programs accredited by the Residency Review Committee for Emergency Medicine (RRC-EM). Methods: Data represent compensation paid for the 2004-2005 academic year. Responses were collected by SAEM, and blinded program and individual faculty data were entered into a customized version of a relational database program with a built-in statistical package. Salary data were sorted by criteria such as program region, faculty title, American Board of Emergency Medicine certification, academic rank, years since completing residency, program size, and whether data were reported to the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). Demographic data were analyzed with regard to numerous criteria including department staffing levels, emergency department (ED) volumes, ED length of stay, department income sources, salary incentive components, research funding, and specific type and value of fringe benefits offered. Data were compared with previous SAEM studies. Results: Sixty-one of 132 (46%) accredited programs responded, yielding data on 1,213 full-time faculty from all four AAMC regions. Mean salaries were reported as follows: all faculty, $189,848; first-year faculty, $153,855; programs reporting data to AAMC, $183,605; programs not reporting data to AAMC, $204,383; core faculty, $197,259; and noncore faculty, $164,215. Mean salaries as reported by AAMC region were as follows: Northeast, $192,864; South, $182,768; Midwest, $192,224; and West, $195,732. Full-time emergency medicine residency program faculty are reported to be working an average of 1,032 total clinical hours per year. Workweeks average 22 clinical hours per week and 22 nonclinical hours per week, with 5.1 weeks of time off per year. Conclusions: Reported salaries for full-time emergency medicine residency faculty continue to rise overall but fell for the first time in one region (the Midwest). Academic rank continues to correlate directly with salary. Fellowship training continues to show a negative correlation with salary. Significant regional differences in salaries have been present in all six SAEM surveys.