Newly trained female doctors in the United States make significantly less--nearly $17,000 less--than their male counterparts, according to a new study published in this month's issue of Health Affairs. This unexplained pay disparity has been widening since 1999, 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," co-author Anthony Lo Sasso of the School of Public Health of the University of Illinois at Chicago said in a statement.
Yet, even after adjusting for specialty choice, practice setting or work hours, the same gap in pay exists.
While gender discrimination cannot be ruled out as a potential cause, Lo Sasso told Reuters he thinks female doctors may be accepting less pay in exchange for flexible schedules and family-friendly benefits. "What we think it is essentially women trading off some salary for other nonmonetary aspects of the job," he said.
But understanding what drives the gap in pay is crucial, as women account for nearly half of all U.S. medical students and are projected to make up about one-third of all physicians at the beginning of this coming decade, the study notes.
Given the growing need for primary-care physicians, the medical community must rethink how to attract and pay providers as well as the structure of working arrangements, adds Lo Sasso.
For more:
- here's the Health Affairs press release
- check out the study's abstract
- read the Reuters article
- read the Los Angeles Times article