Should residents caring for #covid patients receive hazard pay? Seems to be disparity amongst various residency programs in NYC, and a lot of different views

For background... I make about $75k a year (pre-tax) as a third year resident physician in internal medicine. I have over 400k in student loan debt from medical school alone.

I can be required to work up to 80 hours a week. Which comes out to $18.38 per hour

Granted, I rarely work 80 hours a week. Let's say I only work 65 hours a week. That's $22.62 an hour, pre-tax.

Granted, after 3 more years of fellowship, when I'm qualified to run an ICU, I'll make over $200k.

That whole time, my loans grow at an interest rate of 6%.

Part of the bargain is that I'm not "working" in the pure capitalist sense of the word all of those hours. I'm also learning. I have a quasi student-employee status as a resident. I get lectures. I am taught procedures. I get feedback on my thought processes.

I would argue that pre-covid, I've been underpaid. I don't like to make a big deal out of it because in the bigger picture of income inequality in the US, and NYC in particular, I am still very, very privileged.

My privilege is in part as a physician and all the perks that comes with. But more to the point, I'm privileged because I am white and grew up rich. Like so many of my colleagues, I have a physician parent. My husband will soon be a lawyer, and has a lawyer parent.

So, we have a comfortable life. Not all residents have that. Many have huge loans and provide financial help to their extended families. Many have children. Many have challenges I am totally clueless of. That was all true BEFORE #covid.

Enter #covid. Residents are now asked to work longer, more exhausting hours. The formal teaching part of our curriculum has shrunk drastically because our clinical skills are desperately needed to save lives. Meanwhile, we are in environments where are actual lives are at risk.

The death of a resident physician is really, really scary. We worry about our selves and our friends. We know better than to think "oh we're young and healthy, we're fine." Plus, some residents have chronic illnesses like diabetes or prior cancer https://www.macombdaily.com/news/coronavirus/ascension-doctor-dies-from-suspected-covid-19/article_dea5ed14-78f1-11ea-a136-2fb6d00743f9.html

So, given that we're doing essential work and our lives our at risk and we never made that much money to start with, some residents are asking for hazard pay. It seems really reasonable to me.

I'm not too sure what the counterargument is to be honest, other than the fact that hazard pay costs money.

It feels really unsavory to ask for it. Because we take our responsibility to patients so seriously and we don't want to seem greedy or ungrateful.

I'm not using this thread to ask that I get paid more. As a I said above (see tweet about privilege) I'm doing okay. But don't assume for a second that because some is a resident physician that they have a cushy life. Resident physicians are struggling in this too.

Partners or other family members may be losing jobs. Family members may be sick. Children have to live far away. None of it is easy. So I think it is totally reasonable for resident physicians to organize and call for hazard pay in these unprecedented times.