Practice Management News

Physician Compensation Plateaued in 2018, Falling Less than 1%

The study also showed annual physician compensation for female doctors edged closer to the rates earned by their male counterparts.

Physician compensation and physician gender wage gap

Source: Getty Images

By Jacqueline LaPointe

- Physician compensation recently stagnated despite years of steady growth. Wages decreased by less than one percent from 2017 to 2018, a new study from the professional medical network Doximity revealed.

The healthcare industry may not be experiencing the general wage growth observed across industries, but the study drawn from self-reported compensation surveys completed by about 90,000 full-time, licensed physicians did find that the gender wage is narrowing for physicians.

Male physician compensation plateaued in 2018, while the wages of their female counterparts increased by two percent on average. As a result, the physician gender wage gap fell from 27.7 percent in 2017 to 25.2 percent a year later.

In other words, female doctors generally received $90,490 less than the average male doctor in 2018, down from a gap of $105,000 the previous year.

“Compensation transparency is a powerful force. As more data becomes available to us, exposing the pay gap between men and women, we see more movements to rectify this issue,” Christopher Whaley, PhD, lead author of the study and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, stated in a press release.

The study found that female physician compensation is improving relative to their male peers. However, physician compensation in general significantly varies by region and specialty.

Like the previous year, metropolitan areas with the lowest average compensation rates in 2018 tended to have more academic institutions. The provider organizations generally pay less than private organizations because medical schools surrounding academic institutions supply the intuitions with a steady flow of doctors who must compete for the limited open positions in the region.

The study also found the metropolitan areas with the highest annual compensation rates for physicians in 2018. The regions included:

  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin — $395,363
  • New Orleans, Louisiana — $384,651
  • Riverside, California — $371,296
  • Minneapolis, Minnesota — $369,889
  • Charlotte, North Carolina — $368,205
  • Dallas, Texas — $362,472
  • Atlanta, Georgia — $362,267
  • Los Angeles, California — $356,390
  • Cincinnati, Ohio — $354,129
  • Hartford, Connecticut — $352,129

Researchers noted that Milwaukee, Dallas, and Los Angeles were the only areas to make it on the list of regions with the highest physician compensation again. And of the three areas, only physicians in Milwaukee experienced an overall increase in compensation. Doctors in the other regions faced a decrease in 2018.

The study also identified the metropolitan areas with the lowest compensation rates for physicians in 2018. The areas included:

  • Durham, North Carolina — $266,180
  • Providence, Rhode Island — $267,013
  • San Antonio, Texas — $276,224
  • Virginia Beach, Virginia — $294,491
  • New Haven, Connecticut — $295,554
  • Las Vegas, Nevada — $297,776
  • Austin, Texas — $299,297
  • Denver, Colorado — $303,454
  • Washington, D.C. — $305,216
  • Boston, Massachusetts — $305,634

Different metropolitan areas also had different wage gaps, the study uncovered. For example, the smallest gap was 9 percent, or a difference of $28,542, in Birmingham, Alabama. The area closed its wage gap from 21 percent the previous year.

However, female physicians in New Orleans earned 32 percent, or $131,394, less than their male peers.

Overall, 64 percent of the 50 metropolitan areas studied saw the physician gender wage gap decline from 2017 to 2018. However, most regions with the largest gaps also experienced an increase during the period, while areas with smaller gaps saw improvement.

Additionally, researchers observed the gender wage gap persisting by medical specialty.

Generally, medical specialties that required the most advanced training continued to have the highest rate of annual physician compensation in 2018. Those specialties included neurosurgery ($616,823), thoracic surgery ($584,287), orthopedic surgery ($526,385), radiation oncology ($486,089), and vascular surgery ($484,740).

In contrast, physicians earning the least in 2018 specialized in pediatric infectious disease ($186,892), pediatric endocrinology ($201,033), pediatrics ($222,942), pediatric hematology and oncology ($222,953), and family medicine ($242,352).

Similar to 2017, female physicians did not make more than their male peers in any medical specialty in 2018.

Researchers also pointed out that the gender wage gap ratio within medical specialties was “less stark” compared to the ratios by metropolitan area, with female physicians earning 23 percent less than their male counterparts. Although, the wage gap narrowed to 15 percent for primary care.

“We hope that this study can be used as a comprehensive resource to better inform U.S. physicians, medical students, and healthcare organizations,” stated Mandy Armitage, MD, Director of Medical Content at Doximity. “Although pay for female physicians has improved substantially, there is still significant progress that needs to be made.”