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Women Physicians Earn Less Than Male Counterparts

by Kathy Jones on Feb 4 2011 8:42 PM

 Women Physicians Earn Less Than Male Counterparts
Gender disparity continues to persist in the medical field after a new report revealed that women physicians earned $17,000 less than their male counterparts regardless of their specialty choice.
A 10-year study into the salaries found that instead of the gap reducing over the years, it has in fact widened. According to the report, the difference between the earnings of a male and female physician was around $3,600 in 1999 but jumped to $16,819 in 2008.

The study included more than 8,200 graduating residents, of which 3,315 were women, in New York.

All of the residents got jobs during the study period and the starting salaries of male doctors averaged at $187,385 a year compared to $158,727 for women.

“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. 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”, lead researcher Anthony T. Lo Sasso wrote in his report which was published in the journal Health Affairs.


Source-Medindia


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