Salary and Benefits
Learn about the salary and benefits offered to Department of Opthalmology residents
Salary Heading link
The incoming PGY-1 resident stipend for 2024 is about $66,000/year, with an incremental increase of approximately $2,000 per PGY class. You can get up-to-date salary information for the fiscal year on the UIC GME website.
Other Benefits Heading link
Resident education fund
In addition to the resident salary, all of our residents receive a $3,800 (amount for FY23) education fund for lenses, equipment, books, and academic travel. Chief residents are provided with an additional $2,400 for educational purposes.
Our department and the Graduate Medical Education office also offers a publication incentive. For every publication you are awarded further funds based on the impact factor of the journal and the number of authors. This money is added to your resident education fund. There is no cap to the amount of funds that you can receive for your publications.
Free resources and perks
- Each resident is given a set of surgical instruments for use in the wetlab.
- First-year residents will receive the complete AAO Basic and Clinical Science Series Volume in the print set or eBook version.
- First-year residents will receive the Wills Eye Manual
- PGY2 and PGY4 residents are provided between $450-$850 for call that can be used at the hospital cafeteria and cafe.
- Our program also offers residents onsite access to our ophthalmology library (we also have our own librarian), wet-lab, and resident lounge.
- The Infirmary is within walking distance to the UIC gym, medical bookstore, and restaurants.
- Excused clinical duties to attend multiple subspecialty symposia throughout the year, as well as other ophthalmologic society meetings within Chicago.
- Access to the Chicago Curriculum in Ophthalmology lecture series, which is a unique collaboration between the six ophthalmology programs in Chicago. These Saturday lectures cover all subspecialties and are given by prominent faculty and experts from Chicago and across the country. The lectures are hosted at UIC and attended by all the Chicagoland residency program trainees
- Free admission and excused clinical duties to attend an intensive board review series, the Illinois Eye Review, given annually.
Vacation and Time Off Policies Heading link
All residents are given four weeks of paid vacation per year and 24 calendar days of paid sick leave per year.