hey Duke,
Ckent is pretty much right about the pay scale. Also, it depends what niche you are treating. Serious pathologies, i.e. schizophrenia, DID, etc. will mostly require hospital work and pay less. Deal with anxiety and more commonplace disorders and may be able to charge better rates if you serve people in higher income brackets. You will also make more if you don't accept insurance and simply provide fee-for-service care. There are niches out there (weight loss, smoking cessation, ADD, etc.) that have large private pay markets. It all depends on your luck and business sense in settin up a practice. In essence, you make your own way, same as any other career. There are family docs out there making 90k and those making 500k, it all depends on you. And FYI, if you choose psychiatry don't plan on making psychotherapy a mainstay in your practice if you want to make the big bucks. Nowadays it's mostly med checks and a referral to a therapist. Psychotherapy in general isn't where the money is at because there is becoming a lower fee and stadard of care as far as insurance companies are concerned. However, if you really want to do psychotherapy and make the big bucks, you could probably make it happen.