Congratulations to everyone who matched into pathology this year, and welcome to a rewarding career.
Here are some actual data, as opposed to anecdotes, about compensation and job satisfaction.
Medscape did a survey of 20,329 physicians in 2018 about their compensation as well as their satisfaction with their compensation. The full slide deck may be found here, to verify the primary data:
Medscape: Medscape Access
Pathologists are compensated much better than internal medicine or family medicine. The average compensation is:
Pathology $286,000
Internal Medicine $230,000
Family Medicine $219,000
Pathologists believed that they were fairly compensated compared to these other specialties
Pathology 67% felt fairly compensated
Internal Medicine, 61% felt fairly compensated
Family Medicine 51% felt fairly compensated
Daniel Remick, M.D.
Chair and Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center