TUESDAY, Oct. 29, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Female pediatricians earn about 93 percent of what male pediatricians earn, according to a study published online Oct. 29 in Pediatrics.

Mary Pat Frintner, M.S.P.H., from the American Academy of Pediatrics in Itasca, Illinois, and colleagues used data from the Pediatrician Life and Career Experience Study (PLACES), a national longitudinal study, to examine pediatrician-reported income from 2017 to 2022. The adjusted differences in male and female pediatricians’ annual income were estimated for each survey year.

From 2017 to 2022, PLACES participation ranged from 83.6 to 75.5 percent, respectively. The researchers found that the unadjusted mean annual income was $237,168 in 2022: $220,374 and $284,286 for female and male pediatricians, respectively. Female pediatrician income was about 93 percent of male pediatrician income after adjusting for key characteristics, a gap of about $11,000 annually. Income increased across years, but the year-sex interaction was not significant, indicating no change in the female-male income disparity. An increased portion of continuous full-time work, work hours, and time in administrative work were three time-variant characteristics associated with increased income over time.

“This disparity includes adjustments for characteristics in which female and male pediatricians’ careers differ, such as clinical focus and hours worked, and did not worsen or improve over the years,” the authors write. “With more female physicians in the workforce, the findings can be important to understanding overall physician earnings.”

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