Salary gap between male and female physicians adds up to $2 million in lifetime earnings
Women may now equal or outnumber men in medical school classes, but their lifetime earnings as doctors still fall far short of parity. A persistent 25% pay gap between female and male physicians adds up to $2 million over a medical career, a new analysis calculates, after accounting for specialty, hours, location, and years of experience.
The study, published Monday in Health Affairs, echoes other research in academic medicine but also charts a similar gulf in community settings. Its authors believe their work is the first to put a dollar sign on the cumulative impact on income for physicians wherever they practice.
