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March 8, 2022
Written by Megan Moran
“In 2020, women’s annual earnings were 82.3% of men’s, and the gap is even wider for women of color,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor Blog. We have probably all heard of the problem with women not being paid the same as men for the same job. This problem extends into healthcare, with the pay gap getting worse among Physicians.
According to the Harvard Business Review, “Indefensible differences in salary between women and men persist in medicine, with female primary care and specialist doctors earning 25% and 36% less, respectively, than their male counterparts.” Women in medicine get paid less despite them outperforming male physicians, evidence of this was found in a study of 1.5 million medicare hospitalizations. The study found that patients of female physicians had a significantly lower mortality rate and less rehospitalizations. Many of us may not have knowledge on how salary is decided but it does not add up that women are getting paid significantly less than their male coworkers when, statistically, they have better outcomes.
The pay gap among physicians has gotten worse in recent years, according to a report by Medscape in 2019. Medscape reported that male primary care physicians earned 18% more than their female primary care physician colleagues and that the percentage went up to 25% in 2019. Their report showed that in 2019, the average male primary care physician made $258,000 while female primary care physicians made $207,000. They found an even greater gap among specialists with the average male specialist making $372,000 in 2019 and the average female specialist making $280,000. The pay gap has not been making good progress in recent years but there are ways for every female to help.
There are many websites that give people tips on how to help the problem of the pay gap but there was one tip I found across the websites that can be done by every female entering a job or new position. Before entering a job interview, DO YOUR RESEARCH. Research how to negotiate your salary well and research what the average salary for the position is. Females, individually, can help lessen the pay gap in a job interview whether they are a physician or any other job. Do your part in lowering the pay gap amongst all jobs and Happy Women’s History Month!
Sources
https://hbr.org/2019/11/how-to-close-the-gender-pay-gap-in-u-s-medicine
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