Gender Based Salary Differences Among United States Academic Otolaryngologists

To evaluate differences in financial compensation between male and female academic otolaryngologists.

Retrospective, cross-sectional analysis.

Multi-institutional United States public medical schools.

Twelve states with public salary data were identified, and otolaryngology salary data were extracted from associated academic institutions. Physician characteristics were extracted using Doximity, program website review, and direct faculty correspondence. Individual Medicare billing information was collected to account for differences in clinical effort. Univariable and multivariable linear regression models were performed to evaluate associations between gender and inflation-adjusted salary before and after adjusting for physician characteristics, as well as Medicare billing after adjusting for research effort and administrative titles.

Data for 315 academic otolaryngologists was collected with 111 (35.2%) females and 204 males (64.8%). The median salary for females was $334,334 and $398,218 for males (P < .05). In the univariable linear regression setting, there was a significant difference in salary based on gender, with male surgeons making $90,000 more (P < .001). Following multivariable linear regression, faculty rank, number of publications as first or last author, and Medicare payment were all significantly associated with salary (P < .05). Male gender, number of publications as first or last author, and being a medical or residency/fellowship director were all associated with increased total Medicare payments in the multivariable linear regression setting.

A significant difference in salary based on gender was observed for academic otolaryngologists in univariate analysis but not in multivariate analyses. However, total Medicare payment was significantly higher among men after controlling for physician characteristics.