Female radiologists earn about 81% of what their male counterparts collect
Female radiologists earn about 81% of what their male counterparts collect, according to a new analysis.
The 19% difference in billings between men and women remained relatively consistent between 2017 and 2021. Women were far outnumbered in the analysis of salary data from nearly 8,500 radiologists (29% vs. 71%). And they worked an average of 8% fewer days per year, which does not fully account for the pay gap, experts wrote in the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal.
“Our results contribute to the growing body of literature on the gender pay disparities across the broader Canadian medical field,” Hayley McKee, with the University of Toronto Department of Medicine, and colleagues wrote April 17, adding that the findings mirror the 21% pay gap found in a similar study using U.S. data.
For the analysis, researchers gathered publicly available, fee-for-service radiology billing data spanning all four Canadian provinces. They tallied an unadjusted pay gap between men and women of nearly $127,000 ($543,000 vs. almost $670,000). Women radiologists also billed less within every subspecialty area other than breast imaging, where they actually had higher per-person billings (79% difference). The largest gaps were seen in vascular imaging (74% difference), nuclear medicine (45%), neuroimaging (26%), and musculoskeletal care (21%).
Women in radiology worked an average of about 218 days per year compared to 236 for their male colleagues. Both sexes dedicated a similar proportion of total services to procedural work (about 3.5% for women vs. 3.8% for men). But women had lower procedure-based volumes (25% difference) and procedure-based billings (38% difference).
McKee et al. noted that male radiologists may have worked 18 more days, on average, due to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. This includes women taking on a larger share of childcare and home upkeep responsibilities. Previous analyses also have shown that women are more likely to practice in academic settings, which may involve additional professional roles without the corresponding increase in pay.
“Women in radiology may thus experience heightened pressure to not only be academically productive, but also dedicate additional time to internal services for the department such as mentorship, program recruitment, faculty governance and external committees, all to achieve equal professional opportunities,” McKee and colleagues wrote. “These additional expectations may contribute to role strain, burnout and differences in daily workflow that impact billings.”
The authors also noted that women radiologists may feel the need to dedicate additional time to building up their community of peers in the specialty. This could come through forming professional groups, recruiting trainees, and pursuing additional advocacy work. But these are often volunteer roles that don’t contribute to performance benchmarks.
“Placing promotional or compensatory value in internal services such as mentorship, task forces, and committees could offer more equitable advancement and pay for these added responsibilities taken on by women radiologists,” the authors noted. “Increased diversity amongst those in senior leadership positions is another important step in addressing the gender pay gap and breaking down professional barriers to promotion faced by women radiologists. One of the most influential factors in specialty choice for women is mentorship and perceived gender diversity,” they added later.
Read more in the official journal of the Canadian Association of Radiologists below.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.