If you haven't noticed, doctors rank very well in the top 100 jobs mentioned previously. Specialised surgeons ("specialist" doctors who perform surgeries) ranked number 1 with a 75th-percentile income of $22,821, while GPs came in 4th with $14,653.

These are only the 75th-percentile salaries. We can only speculate that at higher percentiles, doctors make much more.

Recall that Manpower Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen once said "You're getting a bargain for the ministers you get... I worked half as much and earn(ed) five times more when I was in the private sector." (Channelnewsasia, 9 September 2003)

Dr Ng was a consultant surgeon in private practice before he joined politics.

Even "part-time" general practitioners make a very comfortable living.

Locums are doctors who substitute temporarily for other doctors (see Wordnet definition). They are those whom you see when your family physician goes on a holiday.

The market rate for locums' pay is $60 to $70 an hour. And it is not uncommon for a locum to get up to $700 per day.

But you ask: Do they get stand-in jobs all the time? The answer is yes. Lots of full-time doctors in private clinics and hospitals frequently need locums to cover them.

By the way, doctors are one of the most respected professions in Singapore. They deserve to be paid well.

http://www.salary.sg/2007/doctors-pay/