Female radiologists earn $94,000 less than their male colleagues each year
Female radiologists on average earn about $94,000 less than their male colleagues, according to new survey data shared Monday.
Men in the specialty take in $625,000 annually versus $531,000 for women working in diagnostic imaging, according to salary transparency firm Marit Health. The gap is smaller for radiation oncologists (about $48,000), with male ROs earning $618,000 compared to $570,000 for their female counterparts.
Marit gathered its findings from anonymous surveys submitted by nearly 11,000 physicians up through January. The analysis placed radiologists behind other specialties with larger pay gaps, including neurosurgeons ($96,000), cardiologists ($117,000) and dermatologists ($132,000). Across all specialties, female physicians earn 78 cents for every dollar taken in by male docs—a figure that adds up to $3.3 million after a 30-year career.
"When women physicians earn millions less over a career despite doing comparable work, the issue isn't individual choices; it's a system that consistently undervalues women's labor," Hala Sabry, DO, MBA., an emergency medicine physician and founder of Physician Moms Group, said in a Feb. 3 announcement from Marit. "This study shows that even when women do everything 'right,' the gap remains.
Marit highlighted potential reasons for the persistent pay gap. About 24% is explained by differences in factors such as employer type, compensation structure, practice locations and scheduling. Specialty choice is the most important factor, the San Francisco-based company noted, accounting for about 48% of the disparity. Females tend to be underrepresented in higher-paying specialties that earn over $600,000. Women only account or about 24.6% of radiologists, the company estimated, and 28.2% of radiation oncologists.
In contrast, women are overrepresented in lower-paying specialties including family medicine, pediatrics, endocrinology and OB-GYN. Subspecialty also plays a part, the company noted. Among nine specialties where specialization is common, 56% of male physicians have a fellowship subspecialty versus 51% of females. Typically, completing a fellowship is associated with a 7% uptick in total compensation, Marit estimated.
“Even after controlling for many measurable factors, we still see a remaining unexplained gap in total compensation between male and female physicians,” Vikas Sabnani, CEO and co-founder of Marit, said in the announcement. “A patient encounter is reimbursed the same regardless of the physician's gender, and medical school costs the same, so this gap is not just unfair, it changes the financial trajectory of an entire career in medicine."
Other factors also are at play. For radiologists and other physicians working in productivity-based models, there is a 6% difference in work RVU (relative value unit) conversion rates between men and women. There also is an 18% difference in signing bonuses, even when controlling for other factors, the survey found. Diverging preferences for employer types is another factor, associated with 18% of the pay gap. Female physicians tend to work in academic and public-sector settings that pay less than private practices, and they’re also substantially less likely to report ownership income.
You can read much more in the full report, available for free here.
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.