In an age where women fight for equal rights with men, the employment world in the United States still favors the latter in terms of compensation. In the medical field, a whooping $20,000 separates the salary of male and female doctors.
According to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine as reported by Time, male doctors earn an average of 8% more than female doctors. Full women professors in medical school also earn the same as male associate professors.
As per the study's lead author, Dr. Anumpam Jena, age, specialty, years of experience, count of published papers, Medicare reimbursement amount and status, and awards are the things that determine a doctor's income. Using reports of salaries by 10,000 academic physicians, Dr. Jena paired each doctor to his/her salary (via Time).
She found out that women physicians earned $50,000 less than men practitioners. When the results were adjusted to accommodate other variables, the findings of the study still showed that women earn less than men, $20,000 separating their salaries (via Time).
Dr. Jena suggests that the main reason is differing attitude of the opposite sexes. For instance, women can negotiate less aggressively than men and look for jobs in order to get a raise from their current company. The third reason is discrimination, consciously or unconsciously (via Time).
Nonetheless, the lead author maintains that the problem is with the human resource department for allowing the salary gap to exist. The system of the company must properly compensate employees based on the work they do.
According to AAUW, women of color and mothers are discriminated more. The pay gap among them and male employees is much worse and it grows as people age. Also because of this, women find it harder to pay their student loan debt than men. In 2014, full time working women were paid 79 percent of the salary men got.
As per Institute for Women's Policy Research, women-based jobs until now are still compensated much lower than men-based jobs. If the salary gap persists and imposed changes run at a slow pace, it will take until 2059 before men and women receive the same salary for the same job that they do.
How do you think can the salary gap be solved and women and men who do the same job be paid the same? Sound off your thoughts in the Comments section below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
