Pay Gap Between Male And Female Doctors Gets Wider And Wider

Newly trained female doctors in the United States make nearly $17,000 less than their male counterparts, even though women increasingly are choosing careers in higher-paying medical specialties, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They said there has been a widening gender gap in starting salaries for female doctors, rising from a difference of $3,600 in 1999 to $16,819 in 2008.

"It is not surprising to say that women physicians make less than male physicians because women traditionally choose lower-paying jobs in primary care fields or they choose to work fewer hours," Anthony Lo Sasso of the School of Public Health of the University of Illinois at Chicago said in a statement.

"What is surprising is that even when we account for specialty and hours and other factors, we see this growing unexplained gap in starting salary. The same gap exists for women in primary care as it does in specialty fields," said Lo Sasso, whose findings were published in the journal Health Affairs.

The study is based on survey data from more than 8,000 doctors exiting training programs in New York, a state that is home to more residency programs and resident physicians than any other in the United States.

While historically women have tended to choose primary care fields such as family medicine or pediatrics, the percentage of women entering those fields dropped from about 50 percent in 1999 to just over 30 percent in 2008, roughly on par with male doctors.

But even though women doctors are choosing higher-paying medical specialties, they still made considerably less than men in 2008. The team found the gap widened even after adjusting for choice of specialty, practice type or number of hours worked.

"Essentially, what we see is our ability to explain that difference in salary between men and women goes away. What we're left with is almost a $17,000 salary difference between men and women," Lo Sasso said in a telephone interview.

"We weren't expecting to see this widening gap in salary over time and the inability to account for it with any observable characteristics."

While the study does not show why, Lo Sasso said the team cannot rule out gender bias as an explanation. But he thought it likely that female doctors were taking less pay in exchange for regular schedules or other family-friendly benefits.

"What we think it is essentially women trading off some salary for other nonmonetary aspects of the job," he said.

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[zdoggmd]

07:31 PM on 02/05/2011

Pay disparities in general are an unfair bummer. For example, the pay discrepancy between a radiologist and a primary care hospital-based doc (such as myself). See obligate parody rap video here: http://zdoggmd.com/2011/02/hard-docs-life-hospitalist-anthem/

[PukkaDemocrat]

05:42 PM on 02/05/2011

That may be true, but women have an easier time getting into American medical schools than men. So I'd say it's a nice trade-off. What I wouldn't give to be a black woman.

[ElizaDarcy]

10:07 PM on 02/06/2011

If I remember correctly the blue application was for boys, and the pink one was for girls. Us ladies had to describe our favourite color, and draw a pretty picture.... the men's application required detailed knowledge of differential calculus just to decode the instructions.

Perhaps you meant women are more successful at getting into medical school? The gender ratio in my class shows this to be true, although men outnumber women in both the class ahead and behind mine. My med school has no affirmative action (yet), for any reason. Everyone who got in, did so on their own merit, and competed in the same process. Perhaps the US should adopt this more Canadian approach...

[497NY]

09:29 AM on 03/30/2011

When I received my MD degree from the Univ of Tex SA, we were finally able to get the stats on our entrance numbers. White male avg GPA 3.734, MCAT upper 30%, Black female avg GPA 2.75, MCAT avg lower 30%. Oh has the political correct society improved or what? Seems strange that everyone was suppose to get in on their on merit. Oh I know, these are just numbers.

[Marnie Joyce]

03:24 PM on 02/05/2011

"While the study does not show why, Lo Sasso said the team cannot rule out gender bias as an explanation. But he thought it likely that female doctors were taking less pay in exchange for regular schedules or other family-friendly benefits."

instead of a man assuming women are choosing to be paid less, why not ask a woman?

[stape45]

11:04 PM on 02/04/2011

Shameful, but not surprising.

[lowery2008]

04:37 PM on 02/04/2011

I'd rather get paid less if it means better befits and better schedule. There are trade offs. Money isn't everything.

[HelloInThere]

02:45 PM on 02/04/2011

I am not saying that there is not a gender gap but through personal observation (working for multiple doctors) and others studies I have read about this, there is also a difference in how many patients are seen during the same 8 hr. work day. I have read studies that have shown that on average, female doctors see less patients per hour then male doctors. I worked for two very good doctors. One male and one female. Both very good at their jobs. The female doctor tended to spend more time building relationships with her patients (might have better long-term results) while the male doctor was in and out of the room within 3-5 minutes.

[justShareandbeNice]

10:25 PM on 02/04/2011

I guess I really shouldn't judge this dr who you say is very good. However, it seems *impossible* to be even a decent dr if they are out of the room in 3-5 minutes. I am assuming the female dr is in and out in, say, 10 or 15 min? Pathetic, in both cases.

I suffer from a chronic illness and haven't seen a dr who treats patients like they are widgets in a long time. I won't be treated like that. It is simply absurd. Truly scary. Inhumane.

[alongst]

11:33 AM on 02/05/2011

Then go to Med school. Simple.

[Gabe Westheimer]

02:01 PM on 02/04/2011

Let's also talk about the pay discrepancy between Primary Care Physicians and Nurse Practitioners/Physician Assistants. As a midlevel Provider it AMAZES me the pay discrepancy is disgusting. We do the SAME work 98% of the time and get paid way less.

[NinaColbert]

10:45 PM on 02/04/2011

The work is not the same. That is the point.
NPs and PAs are not qualified to take on the same responsibilities.

[alongst]

11:35 AM on 02/05/2011

That's like a three year RN demanding the same pay as a NP- half the education means half the pay.

[Jazmo]

12:26 PM on 02/04/2011

Big gender gap in pay. Shocking.

[phill273]

11:48 AM on 02/04/2011

Read "Why Men Earn More" by Dr. Warren Farrell. This story is full of half-truths.

[maxfax]

03:53 AM on 02/04/2011

Pick a professiona, any one, women are paid less.

[Isthisalreadyinuse]

02:48 AM on 02/04/2011

In the US, most doctors are piece workers. Onion boy said mechanics and I think meant the same thing. By the way, the term piece workers for a doctor was suggested to me by a doctor. Rates per piece are not different based on gender within a specialty. They do vary in some commercial contracts from group to group, so I suppose solo practitioners who are women may just not negotiate as well as their male counterparts, but am sure this would not be material. Which to me leave only the pieces produced or the complexity of the pieces produced as the variables. To others point, perhaps women doctors produce fewer pieces because they spend more time with a patient. I suspect there is some merit to that one. Maybe they take more short breaks between because they have to check in on a child or family in between an appointment. Perhaps they are more generous in giving their time to the numerous pharmaceutical reps knocking on their door. And perhaps they for whatever reason don't perform as many higher complexity and therefore higher compensation procedures, even in the same specialty. Finally, maybe they are more conservative in their coding, on things like evaluation and management levels.

[NinaColbert]

10:47 PM on 02/04/2011

The point on how men and women do the coding is a very interesting point.
You have made some valid suggestions in your post. The authors of this article should take note.

[Marnie Joyce]

05:21 PM on 02/05/2011

The authors of this article might also have consulted a female doctor or two, instead of a male expert to hazard the guess that while it might be bias, it might merely be women choosing to earn less, an implication that is nothing short of demeaning.

[saskatoonie]

12:05 AM on 02/04/2011

WAY less? Terrible grammar!

[Paul Robertson]

02:38 AM on 02/04/2011

That's heaps bad journalism!

[justShareandbeNice]

10:26 PM on 02/04/2011

I know, could someone please change that headline NOW!

[RVU]

10:09 PM on 02/03/2011

What this article isnt addressing are the nuts and bolts reasons likely behind the supposed income disparity. Some disciplines in medicine require 2 to 7 years of additional training beyond medical school to be appropriately accredited. This often means for a young middle aged woman entering her 30s choosing a medical discipline while keeping in family planning options. This is on top of many young women in college and medical school sacrificing personal relationships to graduate from the toughest educational and time challenges that being a successful medical school applicant and graduate imposes. Thus, a lot of women choose the shortest route (Family Med, Gen. Internal Med.) to get boarded.

Women are now a post-graduate majority in one of the most selective and lucrative specialties-Dermatology. Why? Because it too is a relatively short training period and the best medical female medical students compete for these spots intensely. So all the conspiratory guess work of pay difference with the "old boys network" alive and well-is frankly for the bullocks in this case.

[stape45]

09:58 PM on 02/03/2011

Red, white, blue and green.

[L-dizzle]

09:43 PM on 02/03/2011

Lets start considering the pay scale of veterinarians. After all, the education is, at least, just as much work and the compensation is beans compared to what MD's make. I think that if you compared the amount of work put into both occupations, you would find that the compensation is in a different universe in the human medical field for no justifiable reason. It's okay though...I'm not okay with doing rectal examinations on human beings.

[Isthisalreadyinuse]

02:25 AM on 02/04/2011

So a few weeks of human anatomy, and a vet could be an MD?

[L-dizzle]

11:32 AM on 02/06/2011

Well, that certainly is an ongoing joke...

[Gregory Goldmacher]

08:47 AM on 02/04/2011

You're missing two things.

First, the training is not the same. Docs go from med school to several years of residency (3-7, plus fellowship in some cases). Most vets go right from school to practice (some do an extra year of residency, but not the majority).

Second, the stakes are higher with humans (we love our pets, but we love our relatives more), so being sure that your doc is competent matters more than making sure your vet is competent, all else being equal.

Finally, a little joke (courtesy of a close friend of mine who is a vet):
A vet goes to see a doc, complaining of some illness. The doc starts taking a detailed history. The vet, fed up with it, says "Hey, doc! Look, I treat patients too, and I don't have to do all this endless talk talk talking. Just examine me, and then treat me, OK?" The doc says "OK. Take these pills twice a day, but if they don't work.... we're going to have to put you down."

[NinaColbert]

11:06 PM on 02/04/2011

:D

[L-dizzle]

11:31 AM on 02/06/2011

Well I certainly wouldn't compare a residency and the classroom-based education that one would receive in med or vet school too much. Practicing medicine is difficult, either way, but the difficulty of the classroom-based learning is what I was considering the most, because that is the portion of either program that will "weed out" the unfit. A veterinarian not only has to be better at mastering the art of the physical exam but he/she also has to be better at picking up indications of illness from patients that can't speak. I worked with a pediatric oncologist that decided to become a veterinary oncologist and I know several professors that teach at both a medical and veterinary school. They ALL have said that veterinary medicine is more difficult for the aforementioned reasons and due to the whole multiple species factor. You may be missing at least two things. Consider also the fact that most MDs overspecialize and decide that they don't need to remember anything that doesn't pertain to their field of medicine. As general practitioners/ surgeons veterinarians must maintain that general, medical expertise that most MDs seem to just forget. Also, I would argue that you are wrong about the stakes being higher. At times, they are, but there are also people out there that care more about their dog than they do about some of their own family members. This is true whether you want to accept it or not.