White male doctors earn 35 percent more than black male doctors

[HuckleB]

https://www.statnews.com/2016/06/07/physician-pay-gap/

"White male physicians in the United States earn a whopping 35 percent more than their black male counterparts — even after accounting for factors such as field of medical specialty, experience, and hours worked.

Data published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal also showed a large gender gap. White female physicians earned 40 percent less than white men, and black women earned less still.

“That’s crazy,” said Dr. Devin Smith, a third-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology. He said he knows black physicians like himself tend to gravitate toward primary care fields, which pay less than specialties such as surgery. But the data showed huge wage disparities even within medical specialties. “I wonder how the systems [in medicine] are so flawed that this can happen,” Smith said.

...

Jena said the pay gulfs dissuade women and minorities from pursuing certain paths in medicine. “What that means is that you are going to miss some bright minds,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s not just an issue of fairness. You can certainly create a narrative where patients will actually be harmed by these sorts of policies.”

..."

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[merrily]

1. Heinous.

I did not see offhand a comparison between white female doctors and black female doctors. I did see that women earn 17% less than men. Does that imply that all women are earning about the same? Or that white women doctors earn 17% less than white male doctors and black women doctors earn 17% less than black male doctors? It's funny (but not to laugh at) that an article about discrimination headlines about the men.

[HuckleB]

4. The headline should have addressed women, clearly.

[scscholar]

2. Did they adjust for locations?

Mosts AA docs work in areas that need help unlike those white doctors that just ignore us.

[Igel]

5. They also probably didn't adjust properly for hours worked.

Sounds like they just divided income by hours. So if you work fewer hours, you should make less money.

On the other hand, take two pediatricians my son had as a child. Both women. One worked all the time. She was there when needed, and put in more than 40 hours/week. The other worked part-time because, as she put it, her first commitment was to her daughter.

Which do you think would be promoted, given additional bonuses, etc? Even if they both started at the same hourly wage, the one who worked full time and was a full member of the team would get advanced. Yeah. One was made a partner of the practice, the other continued part-time as a contact employee.

Statistically speaking, men fit the "full time plus as needed" model more than women.

(Still, geography was the first thing that came to mind. Another was length of time in the field, given admission trends over the last 20 years in medical schools. An additional one is self-limiting. I've known many students whose attitude was that things were against them, so why even try; or they got to a decent spot, why push any harder? Most of these were from low SES households, often black or Latino.)

The article gives correlation and we immediately supply causation. Bad cognitive faculties, bad!

[hunter]

8. Who would be promoted? Neither.

They'd lay off the part time woman, put the full time plus woman on part time, and hire a white guy working regular hours to give bonuses to.

[yeoman6987]

3. I wonder when being interviewed and given the benefits package,

Instead of signing, the prospective doctor says, "no and says add 35-40 percent to the bottom line and then I will accept." I think that is the only way to stop the gap. I know when interviewing, even I want the job so badly that I'd accept lower then I'm worth just to get the job. That's got to stop for all of us.

[merrily]

6. Problem is, he or she has just come off of 4 years college, 4 years med school and at least 1 year

of internship and is in debt up to his or her eyebrows.

I don't know how much leverage doctors have these days anyway.

[dmosh42]

7. Earned?? Any doctor I go to just decides what he wants. Now on Medicare, keeps it in limits!