Study shows female physicians paid less
A discernible gender gap exists in earnings by physicians working across a range of occupations in the United States. That is the finding in a new study, “Trends in the Earnings of Male and Female Health Care Professionals in the United States, 1987 to 2010,” co-authored by Amitabh Chandra, professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). The paper was published in the Sept. 2 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. Chandra and his co-authors examined a range of data over a 23-year period, adjusting for hours worked in order to avoid overstating gender differences attributable to choices made by female physicians to work less. The analysis provided strong evidence that female physicians are underpaid compared to their male counterparts. “Adjusted earnings of male physicians in 1987-1990 exceeded those of female physicians by $33,840 (20 percent). There was no improvement over time in the earnings of female physicians relative to male physicians,”...