<p>It’s true that, on average, MD faculty get paid more than PhD faculty. But that’s because medical school faculty get paid more than faculty in traditional academic departments, and MDs are much more likely to be on faculty at a medical school. If you get a PhD and get on the faculty at a medical school, you will get paid a lot more, too.</p>
<p>Assistant professors in the sciences can start out making anywhere from $50K to $85K depending on where they work, possibly more. For example, the average salary of assistant professors at my university (Columbia) is $99,000 a year. At Chicago it’s $102,000. If you can get a job at one of those prestigious places, that’s great. But at Appalachian State, they make $60,000 on average. The median seems to be right around $52,000.</p>
<p>The AAUP 2012 Faculty Salary Survey provides information on average/median salaries for faculty members:</p>
<p>[What</a> Professors Make - Labor & Work-Life Issues - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/faculty-salaries-data-2012/131431#id=144050]What”>http://chronicle.com/article/faculty-salaries-data-2012/131431#id=144050)</p>
<p>I’m guessing that the very large professor salaries at the big research institutions on the list are somewhat skewed upwards by their medical faculty, who tend to make a whole lot of money. But full professors almost anywhere can expect to be in the low six-figures (unless you’re at a tiny teaching college or very small regional public in a low COL area), and associate professors can probably expect to make anywhere from $65K to $100K, although that’s a really large range and it depends on the area and the school.</p>
<p>Research institutions tend to pay more than teaching institutions, but it sounds like you want to do research anyway. Schools with bigger endowments tend to pay more. Another thing that PhDs often do is write grants to supplement their salary. At some schools (“soft money,”) you are required to do this, as writing grants is the only way to pay your salary anyway.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s easier to get grants as an MD. It depends on the kind of research that you are doing.</p>