End Hazing in Medicine

A public advocacy project

Training allows 80 hours a week. At that cap the stipend is $16 an hour.

Eighty hours. Forty is overtime.

Training cap versus the overtime line Training cap (clinical + school work) 80 hr/wk Federal overtime line for covered workers 40 hr/wk

Shifts can run 24 hours in a row, plus up to 4 for handoffs[9].

Sources: [8] [17]

Divide $68,166 by those hours.

Hourly pay at 40, 80, and surgery hours If the stipend covered 40 hours $32.77/hr At the 80-hour training cap $16.39/hr Surgery residents, 83.1 hours a week $15.77/hr PGY-1 mean $68,166 / 52 weeks. 96.9% of hospitals pay the same base.

The average first-year stipend was $68,166 in the 2025 national survey[1]. Almost every hospital pays the same base across fields: 96.9% of institutions[2].

Sources: [105] [7] [5]

Five residents in white coats and scrubs smiling together in a bright hospital corridor

Tired doctors make more mistakes.

Serious ICU errors rise on 24-hour schedules More serious errors, 24-hr vs 16-hr schedule 35.9% more 136.0 vs 100.1 per 1,000 patient-days, P<0.001.

One ICU trial found 35.9% more serious medical errors on 24-hour schedules[66]. Patients deserve doctors who are not exhausted and preoccupied by money stress[36].

Source: [66]

“Patients deserve doctors who aren’t exhausted and preoccupied by financial stress.”
— Dr. Shreya Amin, endocrinology fellow, KFF Health News, May 2022. Tired doctors make more mistakes. Stressed doctors leave medicine.

What we propose

  • Fair base pay $68,166 a year is $16.39 an hour at 80 hours. Tie raises to inflation at minimum. Recommendation 1
  • A real limit on hours The 80-hour average as a ceiling, never a target. Every hour counted. Recommendation 2
  • Overtime past 40 hours The missing premium runs about $102,248 a year at 80-hour weeks. Recommendation 3
  • Real tax relief on student debt Deduct the interest residents actually pay, not just the first $2,500. Recommendation 4
  • Clear family supports One clear leave policy per program, plus honest childcare math. Recommendation 5

Do one thing now

Share one finding from this page with a colleague. Send the Recommendations page to a policymaker you trust.

Read the Recommendations