Male Doctors Make More in Industry Payments Than Females

A new gender wage gap has been found. A recent study suggests that male physicians in the United States took in more money from the biopharmaceutical industry in 2015 than their female peers, across almost every specialty. Researchers analyzed the general industry payments, including research grants, consulting fees, and food and beverage expenses, earned by 933,925 physicians. Two-thirds of the doctors in the study were male. Across all specialties, men received a higher per-physician value of general payments versus women, with a median difference of $1,470. The discrepancy in neurosurgery was particularly wide, with the largest per-physician value of general payments for male neurosurgeons at $15,821, compared with $3,970 for their female colleagues. Female doctors with children may work fewer hours than their male counterparts, although not every woman physician is a mother, and not every female doctor who is a mother has reduced her hours, noted Hegewisch in an email. “But this is not really a full explanation: why is it that women take so much more responsibility for their kids and for family care overall? Discrimination, access to the highest paying opportunities, and systemic bias in the way funding and patenting systems are set up are also likely to contribute,” she said. The study also found that male physicians held 93% of the value received from ownership interests, including stock options and partnership shares, and received a higher per-physician value a...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs