Female Physicians Earn $50k Less Than Their Male Counterparts: 7 Things To Know

Although female physicians are often rated higher than male physicians by patients, they frequently earn a lower level of pay and achieve lower levels of engagement, according to data gathered by athenahealth's athenainsights.

For its report, athenainsights curated an array of information from publicly available sources.

Here are seven things to know.

1. Female physicians' salaries on average are lower than male physicians salary across the country and across specialties. On average, a female physician earns $206,641 per year, while a male physician earns $257,957 per year.

2. There are more male physicians than female physicians — the national average is a difference of 34 percent.

3. Gender disparities widen in specialties that involve surgery. Roughly 95 percent of orthopedic physicians are male, 87 percent of cardiologists are male and 84 percent of gastroenterologists are male.

4. Female physicians are more likely to experience burnout, and female physicians under the age of 45 have the highest burnout rates.

5. However, male physicians work longer hours (63.2 hours per week) than female physicians (58.1 hours per week).

6. Across the board, physician engagement levels are low, but women are less engaged (84 percent) than their male counterparts (78 percent). Less engaged physicians are more likely to leave their current organization.

7. Elderly patients are more likely to receive positive care outcomes when they are treated by a female physician. Mortality rates and readmission rates are slightly higher for male physicians (11.49 percent and 15.57 percent, respectively) than for female physicians (11.07 percent and 15.02 percent, respectively).

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