Female Physicians Earn An Estimated $2 Million Less Than Male Physicians Over A Simulated 40-Year Career

Abstract

Differences in income between male and female academic physicians are well known, but differences for community physicians and career differences in income have not been quantified. We used earnings data from 80,342 full-time US physicians to estimate career differences in income between men and women. The differences in annual income between male and female physicians that we observed in our simulations increased most rapidly during the initial years of practice. Over the course of a simulated forty-year career, male physicians earned an average adjusted gross income of $8,307,327 compared with an average of $6,263,446 for female physicians-an absolute adjusted difference of $2,043,881 and relative difference of 24.6 percent. Gender differences in career earnings were largest for surgical specialists ($2.5 million difference), followed by nonsurgical specialists ($1.6 million difference) and primary care physicians ($0.9 million difference). These findings imply that over the course of a career, female US physicians were estimated to earn, on average, more than $2 million less than male US physicians after adjustment for factors that may otherwise explain observed differences in income, such as hours worked, clinical revenue, practice type, and specialty.

EXHIBIT 1. Differences in income between male and female physicians in the US, by years of practice

SOURCE Authors’ analysis of Doximity physician compensation survey data, 2014–19. NOTES The figure shows unadjusted and regression-adjusted yearly income differences across a forty-year career between male and female physicians, without regression adjustment. Each point represents mean differences in income for that year of practice, and the bars display 95% confidence intervals. Regression-adjusted differences adjust for differences in number of hours worked per week, Medicare billing, specialty, Metropolitan Statistical Area, practice type, year of survey completion, and number of years since last clinical training.

EXHIBIT 2. Simulated career differences in income between male and female physicians in the US, by specialty

SOURCE Authors’ analysis of Doximity physician compensation survey data, 2014–19. NOTES The figure shows forty-year cumulative career income for male and female physicians and the difference between them for physicians overall and among three specialty categories. The bars display regression-adjusted incomes or regression-adjusted mean differences for male and female physicians, with associated 95% confidence intervals.

EXHIBIT 3. Simulated career differences in income between male and female physicians in the US for the ten most common specialties

SOURCE Authors’ analysis of Doximity physician compensation survey data. NOTES The figure shows cumulative career differences in income between male and female physicians for the ten most common physician specialties in the study sample. The bars display the regression-adjusted mean difference in cumulative earnings between male and female physicians, with associated 95% confidence intervals.