Yes, anesthesiology residents are paid a salary throughout all four years of residency. The pay is modest compared to what attending anesthesiologists earn, but it is a real salary with benefits, not a stipend or volunteer position. In 2023, the average resident salary in anesthesiology was roughly $61,654 per year, while the average attending anesthesiologist earned $462,506.
How Much Residents Earn Each Year
Resident salaries increase incrementally with each postgraduate year (PGY). Most programs start PGY-1 residents somewhere around $60,000 and bump pay by a few thousand dollars annually through PGY-4. The exact figures vary by institution and region, but the overall range for anesthesiology residents in 2023 sat in the low-to-mid $60,000s on average.
That gap between resident and attending pay is one of the largest in medicine. An anesthesiology resident earning around $62,000 can expect to make roughly seven to eight times more once they finish training and start practicing independently. The jump typically happens the year after completing residency, or after an additional fellowship year for those who subspecialize.
The Four-Year Training Structure
Anesthesiology is a four-year categorical residency, meaning you match directly into the program and stay for all four years. The first year is called the Clinical Base Year (CBY), which functions as an intern year. You rotate through various specialties like internal medicine, surgery, and critical care to build a broad clinical foundation.
Years two through four are designated CA-1, CA-2, and CA-3 (Clinical Anesthesia years). Training is typically divided into four-week blocks mixing hands-on clinical work with classroom instruction. Your salary rises with each of these years, though the increases are small, usually a couple thousand dollars at most.
Benefits Beyond the Paycheck
Residency compensation goes well beyond the base salary. Programs provide major medical, dental, life, accident, and long-term disability insurance for residents and their dependents. Many also offer flexible spending accounts for medical expenses and dependent care assistance.
Anesthesiology departments commonly cover costs that would otherwise come out of pocket: your medical license fees, board exam registration (both the basic and advanced exams), required textbooks, question bank subscriptions, and professional society memberships. Many programs also fund travel to academic conferences. Some offer childcare support, transportation benefits, home-buying assistance programs, and employee discounts through their affiliated university or hospital system.
Moonlighting for Extra Income
Some anesthesiology programs allow residents to pick up extra shifts for additional pay, a practice known as moonlighting. At Rush University, for example, residents who have completed an ICU rotation can cover weekend shifts in the surgical or neurosciences intensive care units. A single 16-to-28-hour weekend shift there pays roughly $1,440 to $2,520.
There are guardrails. You typically need to be in good academic standing, and all moonlighting hours must comply with duty hour restrictions set by the accrediting body that oversees residency training. Not every program permits moonlighting, and even those that do may restrict it to more senior residents. Still, for those who qualify, it can add several thousand dollars a year in extra income.
How Unionization Affects Pay
A growing number of residency programs are unionized, and the pay difference is measurable. A study published in JAMA Network Open found that residents at unionized programs earned an average of $70,271 per year compared to $65,455 at non-union programs. That roughly $5,000 difference held up even after accounting for specialty, training year, geographic region, and sex. Notably, unionized residents did not work fewer hours per week; both groups averaged about 57 to 58 hours.
Managing Student Loans During Residency
Most anesthesiology residents carry significant student debt from medical school, and a $62,000 salary doesn’t leave much room for aggressive repayment. The federal loan system offers several tools designed for exactly this situation.
Income-driven repayment plans set your monthly payment as a percentage of your discretionary income, typically 10 to 15 percent depending on the plan. On a resident’s salary, that results in payments far lower than the standard 10-year repayment schedule. These plans also qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which cancels remaining federal loan balances after 120 qualifying monthly payments made while working for a nonprofit employer. Since most teaching hospitals are nonprofits, your residency years count toward that 120-payment threshold.
If you need to pause payments entirely, a specific forbearance category exists for medical internships and residencies. This postpones repayment, though interest continues to accrue. For residents planning to pursue PSLF, staying on an income-driven plan and making payments (even small ones) during residency is generally the better financial move, since those years count toward forgiveness.