gender gap in physician income

8/15/2019 Gender Gap in Physician Income

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Abstract

This paper primarily focuses on physician income and demonstrates that women initially

concentrated in specialties that have lower pay. The data indicates that as women continued to

concentrate in these particular specialties, the percentage increase in pay was lower than in

specialties with a high concentration of men. Studies conclude that socialization played (and still

plays) a big part in the gender wage gap in that women have been subject to socialization

demanding greater household wor and more family friendly jobs. This socialization and

crowding effect are underlying causes of the gender wage gap, but the devaluation of jobs is an

inhibitor to close this gap.

The gender wage gap in the !nited States has been a highly"debated topic within the

recent history of the country. #n summation, the current statement regarding this gap is that

women, on average, mae about $% to &' percent of what men are maing. There is much debate


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on the true cause of the gender wage gap, though many economists and sociologists believe that

the issue is multi"faceted. #f two people were to agree on the issue that is the gender wage gap,

there could be an additional debate on how to mitigate or completely remove this gap. The

sociological theories and economic data that go into this phenomena is comple, so # will limit

the scope of the gap by only eamining the concentration of women in the worforce within the

last half century. Also, # will be eamining any ind of correlative effect that the concentration

had on pay during concentration and after it. or the most part, # will be focusing eclusively on

physician income between men and women, as this occupation demonstrates two of the four

reasons for the gender wage gap.

Allison Sahl succinctly eplains four reasons for the gender wage gap in her wor

*+ender ifferences in -or"amily alance, /aid -or, and !npaid 0ousehold 1abor23

preference, crowding, power, and socialization. 4esearch from the 56$'s

and 56&'s suggest that women have personal preferences for jobs that pay less,

however this research was mainly carried out by economists who did not consider

these preferences to be a result of processes such as gender socialization. 7ther

economists and researchers interested in power differentials between men and

women suggest that men are advantaged by their social superiority (in this

American patriarchal society) and therefore have the ability to earn higher wages

because of these advantages (8essler"0arris 9''$). Sociologists studying the

gender wage gap suggest that because of girl:s socialization into women:s wor

they receive secondary status in the labor maret (;ngland and olbre 9''


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occupations which generally have lower pay than jobs with a higher concentration

of men (ellas and =oventry 9''5, Solberg 9''ason 566&). 0owever, the authors are

?uic to mention that the gap is still ?uite large and that the *differences cannot be eplained

well by human capital differences between men and womenB women continue to be more

concentrated in lower"paying jobs than men with e?uivalent levels of education2 (arity r. and

>ason 566&). -e see here that the authors are implying two things3 5) that some have argued

that the reason for this gap is because there is an aggregate difference in human capital between

men and women and 9) this difference in capital is the reason for the gap.

1et:s tae a loo, then, at human capital of men and women in the !nited States in 566'.

#n 566%, the Cational =enter for ;ducation Statistics (C=;S) released a report showing certain

discrepancies in education between men and women. The C=;S stated that the *large gender


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differences in earnings persist after taing educational attainment and prose, document, and

?uantitative literacy sills into account2 (C=;S 566%). Any attempt to argue that the difference

in pay is due to a difference in education is a futile one. Thus, we must loo further for the

difference in the wage gap. >erely saying concentration is not enoughB we must loo at the

residual effects of initial concentration and the secondary and tertiary sociological effects that

crowding may have had on earnings.

The 566% C=;S report showed a comparison of the percentage distribution in bachelor:s

degrees between men and women (56$9 and 5669). #n 56$9, women overwhelmingly received

more bachelor degrees in education than men (D$ percent to 5' percent). Additionally, women

were far more concentrated in health sciences than men were in 56$9 (by % to 5). -omen also

dominated the modern foreign languages and psychology fields with E to 5 and < to < percent

respectively. -hile women still had a similar presence in these particular fields 9' years later, it:s

clear that there was a lac of parity. 1et us eamine, though, the pay of the education, health

sciences, and psychology fields during the 56$'s in respect to the other fields presented in the

study. #n 56$5"56$9, the C=;S reports that the average salary of all teachers was F6,$'< (about

FE6,696 in 9''& dollars) (C=;S 9''6). #n 5665"5669, we can see that the average salary (again,

in 9''& dollars) rose about E.< percent within those 9' years (C=;S 9''6). #n 5669, the parity of

men and women in education barely increased, and the rise in earnings was modest. 1et us

compare this rise in salary to engineering.

#n 56$9, the percentage of both women and men in engineering was ' to 5' percent

respectively. That number didn:t change much in 5669 (about ' to 5D percent). According to the

ureau of 1abor Statistics, in 56$5, the average salary for engineers was between F5%,''' and

F5&,''' (which e?uals F&9,E59.%D to F69,$5E.95 in 9''& dollars respectively), far higher than


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the mean salary of educational worers (1S 56$9). This discrepancy indicates that educational

jobs were already valued less than engineering ones in the early $'s. #f real wages increase at a

constant rate and if women remain statically concentrated , the gender wage gap shouldn:t close

much. According to the American Association of ;ngineering Societies (AA;S), the median

salary for federal government engineers in 566E was F


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the same time. Alicia =. Sasser states that a decrease in *occupational segregation2 in the 56$'s

and 56&'s was certainly a factor in narrowing the gender wage gap (Sasser 9''= 9'59). ;ven when we see psychiatry as a whole striving towards parity, the

specialties within the field are still eperiencing occupational segregation. =rowding is still in

effect within this field. The 1S reports that pediatricians on average mae about F99%,'''. That

number is nearly double for general surgeons, a specialty in which there are far more men than

women.

As we can see with this one eample, women concentrating in the general fields that have

a higher pay isn:t ?uite significant enough to bridge the gender wage gap, though it does help to

narrow it. There are additional specialties that factor into physicians alone. #n a 5669 Health

Affairs article titled *Trends in /hysicians #ncome,2 we can see that orthopedic surgery and

cardiovascular surgery are by far the highest paying specialties (/ope and Schneider 5669).

These two specialties are still heavily saturated with male worers with 6% percent and &6.9

percent respectively (AA>= 9'59). The lowest paying specialties include generalGfamily

practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics (/ope and Schneider 5669). These three specialties

have had a greater percentage of women""the first two having percentages in the D's and


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pediatrics, again, above


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interval, 5.DE to 5.E6). /er hour, young men earned 5E percent more than young

women (ratio, 5.5EB 6< percent confidence interval, 5.'6 to 5.9'). 0owever, after

adjustment for differences in specialty, practice setting, and other characteristics,

no earnings difference was evident. (aer 566%)

aer accounts for these other characteristics in order to demonstrate parity in earnings. The

?uestion we must as is, should these certain characteristics be accounted for@ 7ne of the

greatest factors involving pay has to do with marriage and children. -omen who are not married

and without children had pay practically e?ual to men (aer 566%). -omen who are married

start to see a difference in pay from men, and women who are married with children see a cut in

pay with a tremendous gap in earnings from men.

1ac of paid maternal leave is applicable here, but even if we do account for these

variables, to say that earnings are e?ual, while true, is misleading in terms of the bigger picture.

As stated before, the specialties that received the greatest increase in pay are specialties with the

greatest percentage of men. Those that received the lowest increase in pay are specialties with

higher concentrations of women. -hat this correlation indicates is that this phenomena is not a

factor contributing to the gender wage gapB rather, it is an inhibitor in women:s ability to close

the gap.

Alicia =. Sasser presents to us a contetualization regarding the marriageG family statistic

that aer presented. #n her article titled *+ender ifferences in /hysician /ay3 Tradeoffs

etween =areer and amily,2 Sasser argues that women suffer from pay cuts in family life while

men do not. Sasser lists four reasons as to why family responsibilities might have negative

effects on women:s pay3 first, if women are bearing the majority of household responsibilities,

they are reducing the amount of time ac?uiring capital from their respective specialtiesB second,


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some argue that women with children have lower productivity or *commitment to the labor

maret2B third, greater household woring conditions may have an effect on women:s demand

for more family"friendly jobsB fourth, the earnings are a result of pure employer discrimination

(Sasser 9''


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of the gap in pay between men and women. 0owever, there is a noticeable correlation that, as

women concentrate in certain specialties, the increase in pay is less significant than in specialties

with fewer number of women. To conclude, as long as socialization is present, and as long as this

pay"increase inhibitor dependent on crowding is present, the pay gap between men and women

will continue to persist in the !nited States.

4eferences

American Academy of /ediatrics. *emographics of -omen /hysicians and /ediatricians.2

(9'5D)3 -eb.

Association of American >edical =olleges. *9'59 /hysician Specialty ata oo.2 enter for

!or"force #tudies. (9'59)3 -eb.

aer, 1aurence =. *ifferences in ;arnings etween >ale and emale /hysicians.2 The New

England Journal of Medicine. DDE. (566%)3 /rint.

eazley, Tammy >. *AA;S 4eports the ;ngineering Salary Trends of 566E.2 J$M. E$ (


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!.S. epartment of ;ducation. *;stimated average annual salary of teachers in public

elementary and secondary schools3 Selected years, 56

gender gap in physician income

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