Here are three pieces of good news and three pieces of bad news that female physicians should know:
Good news
1. The gender pay gap is shrinking.
The gender pay gap between female and male physicians decreased to 29% in 2022, compared to 32% in 2021 and 34% in 2020. Women surveyed in Medscape's "Female Physician Compensation Report" for 2023 said they earned $300,000 in average annual earnings in 2022, compared to $386,000 by their male counterparts.
2. Women are receiving bonuses for their work.
The majority of women surveyed (57% of primary care physicians and 56% of specialty physicians) reported qualifying for incentive-based bonuses in the last year.
3. Most women have not been negatively affected by employer cost-cutting tactics.
The majority of women (66%) said they were not affected by employer "belt tightening" in the last year, such as having their hours cut or not receiving a raise.
Bad news
1. Nearly one-fourth of physicians may be considering leaving their roles.
A study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, University of Wisconsin School of Nursing in Madison, Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis and the American Medical Association found that approximately 24.3 percent of physicians plan to quit their roles in the next two years, with an additional 47.3 percent reporting feeling burned out.
Researchers found that work overload could be a predictor of burnout and intent to leave. Overloaded healthcare workers had 2.2 to 2.9 times the risk of experiencing burnout, while overloaded physicians and healthcare workers had 1.7 to 2.1 times the risk of intending to leave their jobs in the next two years.
2. Physician shortages are getting worse.
The overall shortage of physicians in the U.S. could reach 124,000 by 2034, according to Physician Thrive's 2023 compensation report. Of those, up to 48,000 could be in primary care and 76,000 will be specialists, surgeons or hospitalists.
3. Female physicians do not feel fairly compensated and are not optimistic about future pay changes.
Fifty-two percent of women surveyed by Medscape indicated they do not feel fairly compensated, and among those who do feel satisfied, some noted accepting notable tradeoffs.
"I choose this job and plan to stay for reasons of work-life balance," a California pediatrician in a low-paying public health position told Medscape.
Other physicians said they were not sure what proper compensation would look like to them in the face of their working conditions.
"I don't know what the number would be to make me feel fairly compensated for the hours I work and the endless stress of caring for patients in a job where there are essentially no breaks," an internal medicine physician in Colorado told Medscape.