Nuclear medicine records the lowest gender pay gap among physician specialties
The recent release of Doximity's 2023 Physician Compensation Report offers detailed new insight into the impact of continued efforts to narrow the gender pay gap in medicine.
Nuclear medicine recorded the lowest gender pay gap among all physician specialties, with a compensation difference of $11,800 between men and women. Men working in nuclear medicine make an average yearly salary of $394,231, while women earn an average of $382,431.
That’s compared to a staggering gap of $173,102 between men and women working in oral and maxillofacial surgery, with men bringing in an average of $568,789 and women earning an average of $395,687.
Other specialties recording larger pay gaps include urology, ophthalmology, allergy/immunology and pediatric pulmonology.
Although the pay gap does appear to have decreased, the difference in compensation between male and female physicians remains significant. Overall, the gender pay gap fell from 28% in 2021 to 26% in 2022. Analysts involved in the crafting of the report determined that female physicians make an average of $110,000 less per year than their male counterparts. This adds up to more than $2 million over the course of a physician’s career, according to the report.
“While there appears to be slight movement in the right direction, physician pay parity continues to be a critical area in need of improvement,” the report reads. “This pay gap may be contributing to an even higher burnout rate among women physicians, with nearly 92% of women physicians surveyed reporting overwork, compared to 83% of men.”
The report also revealed that radiologist salaries increased by roughly 1.6% from the previous year. Radiologists now earn an average of $503,564 per year.
The report included survey responses relative to salaries from more than 31,000 full-time physicians. Those responses were compared alongside data from more than 191,000 responses from the past six years.
The full report can be accessed here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.