U.S. public medical schools pay female academic physicians less than male academic physicians, even after accounting for age, experience, medical specialty, faculty rank and other factors, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine.
When comparing men and women's average salaries without adjusting for other factors, the pay gap was $51,316, according to the study. However, the 3,549 female physicians in the study were less likely than the 6,692 male physicians to be full professors, to have funding from the National Institutes of Health and to have conducted a clinical trial. The women also tended to be younger, were more likely to specialize in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics, and had fewer total publications than their male counterparts.
Once these factors were included, researchers found a $19,878 difference remained between the average salaries of male and female academic physicians. Women's average adjusted salaries were $227,783 and men's average adjusted salaries were $247,661. Researchers noted surgical subspecialties had the largest gender gap and that the gap existed at all faculty ranks.
"Fixing the pay gap between male and female physicians in academic medicine requires more than just studies showing that it exists; concerted efforts are needed to understand and eliminate the gap," Vineet Arora, MD, of the University of Chicago, wrote in a commentary accompanying the study in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The study authors noted they did not have access to information on faculty track or part-time status, and that reported incomes at some institutions may exclude other payments made to the physicians.
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