The percentage of general practitioners is increasingly female, while the percentage of high-paying specialists is primarily male. Meanwhile new research suggests that gender differences in physicians’ salaries can be accounted for by this tendency of women to enter primary care fields and work fewer hours.

However, the unexplained trend toward diverging salaries appears to be a recent development that is growing over time. In 2008, male physicians newly trained in New York State made on average $16,819 more than newly trained female physicians, compared to a $3,600 difference in 1999 regardless of specialty choice, practice setting, work hours, or other characteristics.

In an interesting comment, Anthony Lo Sasso of the School of Public Health of the University of Illinois at Chicago comments:

“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. We think it is essentially women trading off some salary for other nonmonetary aspects of the job. 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.”

In a study by the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, male doctors are also more often involved in families than are females. Compared with the U.S. population, male physicians are more likely to marry and parent, while the opposite is true for female physicians. The work-family interface also provides dramatic gender differences. Marriage and parenting, which might be expected to impinge on physicians’ careers, actually seem to spur men’s work commitment and earnings, but have the reverse effect for women. A review of research findings from other industrialized countries reveals similar gender differences in physicians’ work and family patterns.

Lasso continues:

“It may be that lifestyle factors are increasingly important to newer physicians. It could be that women in particular want to have more of a lifestyle balance in their medical careers.”

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.

Female heart surgeons were paid $27,103 less on average than males. Female otolaryngologists made $32,207 less than males, and women specializing in pulmonary disease made $44,320 less than men.

Lo Sasso contends that physicians and specialty groups need to clearly understand what is motivating the gender gap in physician pay and address it, especially given the increased need for physicians, particularly in the primary care field. He cautions that policy makers and physician practices should reconsider how to attract providers, the structure of working arrangements, and how to pay providers.

Sources: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Health Affairs

Written By Sy Kraft, B.A.