Objectives: to determine whether sex differences in income persist among primary care physicians in light of the increasing proportion of women entering the field.
Methods: We obtained sex- and age-specific self-reported data from the American Medical Association's annual survey of physicians to determine the annual income, annual income per hours worked, proportion of time in direct patient care, and outpatient productivity for family practice physicians, general internists, and pediatricians between 1989 and 1998. We compared female to male results for respondents in the 36- to 45-year-old age group as well as for the age-weighted gender aggregate.
Results: Female primary care physicians reported lower annual incomes (between 60% and 85% of those of their male counterparts) and lower incomes per hours worked (between 71% and 98% of those of their male counterparts). The income disparities decreased during the 10 years, at a rate of about 1% per year on average. Although the proportion of time female physicians spent in direct patient care activities was similar to that of their male counterparts, female physicians saw substantially more patients per office hour (about 17% more, on average, over time).
Conclusions: Gender inequities persist in the incomes of primary care physicians. Although the disparities appear to be decreasing, female primary care physicians' increased productivity compared with men's suggests that these inequities are perpetuated in more subtle ways and warrant immediate examination and remediation.