Source: Sciencephoto.com
How much more do male doctors make than female ones?
Researchers say the gap is 12-thousand dollars per year and that’s adds up to more than $350,000 over a typical-30 year career!
Women physician-scientists are paid much less than their male counterparts, researchers found, with a salary difference that over the course of a career could pay for a college education, a spacious house, or a retirement nest egg.
To get the fairest comparison, the study authors took into account work hours, academic titles, medical specialties, age and other factors that influence salaries. They included only doctors who were involved in research at U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals, all at the same stage in their careers. And they still found men’s average yearly salaries were at least $12,000 higher than women’s.
While previous studies have found that female doctors are frequently paid less than male doctors, many observers have assumed that’s often related to having children – working fewer hours, or choosing less time-consuming, lower-paying specialties to allow time for child-rearing.
The new study did find more women in less lucrative specialties, including pediatrics and family medicine, and more men in the highest-paying fields, including heart surgery and radiology. But it still found salary inequities even among women and men without parental responsibilities, in similar jobs.
A common reason given in situations like these (including this one) is that men tend to be more aggressive at self-promoting and asking for pay raises than women. That may be true, but when will we stop using that as an excuse to pay women less than what they’re worth? Especially when we know and it has been documented that women make less. Shouldn’t these companies begin to look at their hiring practices and how they determine salaries and raises instead of always leaning on the “women aren’t aggressive” argument?
I’m not buying it. I think women across the board (not just doctors, but in other professions as well) are paid less because companies know they can get away with it. The companies forbid employees to talk about their salary, and, as a result many women don’t even realize they are making less than they deserve. Then when it takes a national study to point it out, everyone goes back to the “women don’t ask for raises” excuse.
Of course, these doctors salaries are nothing to sneeze at considering this report says the women are pulling in an average of $168,000 a year. That’s not exactly poverty, however that’s still not enough when the men are making on average $200,400 per year. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but how many more of these studies have to be released before someone starts looking into these companies and hospitals and determining whether the blame for the disparity really falls on the women employees or if the human resources department hasn’t clearly determined that women just aren’t worth the money?
Alissa Henry is a freelance writer living in Columbus, OH. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaInPink or check out her blog: This Cannot Be My Life
