A new study from scholars affiliated with Yale University has uncovered gender disparities in the average salaries of assistant professors at medical schools at the United States.
In an examination of 45,906 assistant professors in 19 clinical specialities at 153 U.S. medical schools during the 2022-2023 academic year, the study authors found the median annual salary for women assistant professors in medicine was $266,450, compared to a median annual salary of $330,000 for their male peers. This equates to early-career women professors in medicine earning just $0.81 for every $1 earned by their male counterparts.
Among different medical specialities, orthopedic surgery had the largest gender gap in the annual salaries of assistant professors. Women assistant professors in this discipline received a median annual salary of $455,610, compared to $559,990 for men. Clinical pathology was the only speciality in which women were paid more than men, earning $1.02 for every $1 earned by men.
The gender disparities for women from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds were even more pronounced. For every $1 earned by White male assistant professors of medicine, women assistant professors from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (non-White and non-Asian) earned $0.78. For Asian and White women, the salary ratios were $0.80 and $0.81, respectively, compared to every $1 earned by White men. In comparison, the same ratios for men from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine and Asian men were $0.92 and $0.98, respectively. The median salaries of Asian and White women only outpaced White men in clinical pathology. There were no clinical specialities in which the median salary of women from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine outpaced that of their White male counterparts.
To achieve pay equity among assistant professors of medicine, the authors believe institutions will need to promote salary transparency for faculty, prioritize pay equity for new hires, conduct salary reviews for existing employees, and implement training programs to address implicit bias.