Association Between Specialty-Specific Physician Salaries and Percentage of Women in the Workforce

Several studies have demonstrated that female physicians within specific specialties are compensated less than their male counterparts. Academic institutions seek to address this using Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) data for benchmarking and starting salary standardization. However, few studies address whether there is an association between percentage of women across specialties and mean salary for each specialty. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is an association between mean salary and percentage of women in various specialties.

This cross-sectional study used AAMC Faculty Salary Report data for fiscal year 2022. Surveys were sent to 155 U.S. accredited medical schools, of which 153 schools participated (99% response rate). Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to assess the association between mean specialty salary, calculated as the weighted mean of male and female salaries for each specialty, and the percentage of women in each specialty using a generalized linear gamma mixed model.

Analysis using data from 124,480 full-time faculty at 153 accredited U.S. medical schools indicated that as the percentage of women in a specialty increases, mean salary decreases. This finding was true for all specialties ( r = -0.65), medical specialties ( r = -0.83), pediatric specialties ( r = -0.80), and surgical specialties ( r = -0.73). Multivariable analysis accounting for rank, pediatric vs nonpediatric specialties, procedural vs nonprocedural vs mixed specialties, and years of training showed that every 10% increase in percentage of women in a specialty was associated with a 7% decrease in salary independent of other factors.

An inverse correlation between percentage of women in a specialty and mean salary for that specialty was observed even when controlling for confounding factors. This trend is worth noting because AAMC data are often used as a benchmark to establish physician starting salaries.