Pay parity for women in healthcare is an old problem that in many ways has worsened over time.
Bias, a lack of transparency, pay models that value male work patterns and, more recently, the pandemic’s toll, mean women physicians still earn 72 cents on the dollar compared with their male peers. And that gap has widened during the past five years.
That variance is very noticeable among physicians, 70% of whom are now employed by hospitals or corporations. Last year, the difference between what men and women physicians earned was 28.2%, amounting to over $122,000, according to Doximity’s 2021 Physician Compensation Report.
“This does not seem prudent for the future success and growth of our field,” said Dr. Amy Gottlieb, chief faculty development officer at Baystate Health. “In addition to being not ideal ethically, it’s not a very sound business practice. We need to be paying folks equitably and fairly in order to encourage them to be members of our workforces.”
The issue simply hasn’t held the attention of those who “control the purse strings,” said Dr. Anupam Jena, healthcare policy professor at Harvard Medical School.
Jena and a number of other industry experts discussed some the largest roadblocks to gender pay parity and ways organizations are finding solutions through compensation standards and salary transparency.
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