The physician gender pay gap in Maryland: current state and future directions

Figures & data

Table 1. Participant and employment characteristics, total and by gender.

Variable	Total (N = 340)		Females (N = 144)		Males (N = 194)		p-Value*
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Gender	338	100.00	–	–	–	–
Female	144	42.60	–	–	–	–
Male	194	57.40	–	–	–	–
Age	338	100.00	144	100.00	194	100.00	0.000
Less than 23 years old	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
23–38 years old	50.00	14.79	27.00	18.75	23.00	11.86
39–54 years old	111.00	32.84	68.00	47.22	43.00	22.16
55–73 years old	164.00	48.52	48.00	33.33	116.00	59.79
74 years or older	13.00	3.85	1.00	0.69	12.00	6.19
Race/ethnicity	337	100.00	144	100.00	193	100.00	0.008
Asian or Asian American	54.00	16.02	16.00	11.11	38.00	19.69
Black of African American	24.00	7.12	18.00	12.50	6.00	3.11
Hispanic, Latino, Latina or Latinx	8.00	2.37	2.00	1.39	6.00	3.11
Middle Eastern or Northern African	10.00	2.97	3.00	2.08	7.00	3.63
White	220.00	65.28	96.00	66.67	124.00	64.25
Prefer not to disclose/Other	21.00	6.23	9.00	6.25	12.00	6.22
Practice status	337	100.00	144	100.00	193	100.00	0.096
Employed by a community health centre	14	4.15	9	6.25	5	2.59
Employed by a hospital	18	5.34	10	6.94	8	4.15
Employed by a hospital-owned medical group	40	11.87	14	9.72	26	13.47
Employed by a physician-owned medical group	57	16.91	22	15.28	35	18.13
Employed by an academic facility	41	12.17	25	17.36	16	8.29
Employed by an urgent care centre	2	0.59	1	0.69	1	0.52
Employed by the government/VA	7	2.08	4	2.78	3	1.55
Independent	126	37.39	48	33.33	78	40.41
Other	32	9.50	11	7.64	21	10.88
Hours worked per week	337	100.00	144	100.00	193	100.00	0.015
0–10 h	9	2.67	1	0.69	8	4.15
11–20 h	8	2.37	2	1.39	6	3.11
21–30 h	23	6.82	17	11.81	6	3.11
31–40 h	76	22.55	32	22.22	44	22.80
41–50 h	99	29.38	43	29.86	56	29.02
51–60 h	81	24.04	31	21.53	50	25.91
61–70 h	27	8.01	9	6.25	18	9.33
71–80 h	8	2.37	6	4.17	2	1.04
81 h or more	6	1.78	3	2.08	3	1.55
Non-clinical hours worked per week	337		144		193		0.203
Mean	11.96		12.94		11.22
SD	12.25		13.56		11.17
Days worked per week	337		144		193		0.345
Mean	4.81		4.75		4.86
SD	1.08		1.09		1.07
Weekends worked per year	338	100.00	144	100.00	194	100.00	0.300
None	104	30.77	40	27.78	64	32.99
1–5	54	15.98	28	19.44	26	13.40
6–10	45	13.31	17	11.81	28	14.43
11–15	43	12.72	21	14.58	22	11.34
16–20	24	7.10	9	6.25	15	7.73
21–25	29	8.58	16	11.11	13	6.70
26 or more	39	11.54	13	9.03	26	13.40
Current pre-tax income (FY 2020; in thousands)	331		141		190		0.000
Mean	288		225		334
SD	192		145		209
Projected pre-tax income for 2021 (in thousands)	328		139		189		0.000
Mean	299		235		346
SD	233		163		264
Compensation type	338	100.00	144	100.00	194	100.00	0.529
Salary only	101	29.88	45	31.25	56	28.87
Salary with production bonus	110	32.54	49	34.03	61	31.44
Pure production bonus	70	20.71	24	16.67	46	23.71
Income guarantee	9	2.66	3	2.08	6	3.09
Other	48	14.20	23	15.97	25	12.89
Type of production bonus^a	227	–	85	–	142	–
Net collections (yes)	73	32.16	26	30.59	47	33.10	0.695
Quality/value metrics (yes)	69	30.40	30	35.29	39	27.46	0.215
Gross billings (yes)	13	5.73	6	7.06	7	4.93	0.504
RVUs (yes)	76	33.48	35	41.18	41	28.87	0.057
Employer provides benefits	338	100.00	144	100.00	194	100.00	0.542
Yes	311	92.01	134	93.06	177	91.24
Type of benefits^a	311	–	134	–	177	–
Health insurance	249	80.06	107	79.85	142	80.23	0.935
Malpractice insurance	272	87.46	119	88.81	153	86.44	0.533
Retirement (401k, pension, etc.)	263	84.57	118	88.06	145	81.92	0.138
Disability insurance	177	56.91	84	62.69	93	52.54	0.074
Dental insurance	205	65.92	93	69.40	112	63.28	0.259
Life insurance	171	54.98	78	58.21	93	52.54	0.320
Education loan forgiveness	14	4.50	7	5.22	7	3.95	0.593
Current income is reasonable	338	100.00	144	100.00	194	100.00	0.013
Extremely unreasonable	33	9.76	17	11.81	16	8.25
Somewhat unreasonable	88	26.04	49	34.03	39	20.10
Neither reasonable nor unreasonable	46	13.61	20	13.89	26	13.40
Somewhat reasonable	115	34.02	38	26.39	77	39.69
Extremely reasonable	56	16.57	20	13.89	36	18.56
How COVID-19 affected participant’s 2020 income compared to previous year	338	100.00	144	100.00	194	100.00	0.097
Much lower	61	18.05	27	18.75	34	17.53
Slightly lower	95	28.11	35	24.31	60	30.93
About the same	154	45.56	72	50.00	82	42.27
Slightly higher	21	6.21	10	6.94	11	5.67
Much higher	7	2.07	0	0.00	7	3.61
Ways in which COVID-19 affected participants professionally^a	322	–	140	–	182	–
I was not affected professionally by COVID-19	164	50.93	67	47.86	97	53.30	0.333
I joined another practice	14	4.35	3	2.14	11	6.04	0.089
I was furloughed	10	3.11	4	2.86	6	3.30	0.822
I found work in another field	8	2.48	2	1.43	6	3.30	0.286
My practice closed	15	4.66	4	2.86	11	6.04	0.179
I retired	2	0.62	1	0.71	1	0.55	0.852
Other	123	38.20	59	42.14	64	35.16	0.201
Current level of educational debt	337	100.00	143	100.00	194	100.00	<0.001
None	264	78.34	95	66.43	169	87.11
$1–50,000	21	6.23	9	6.29	12	6.19
$50,001–100,000	10	2.97	8	5.59	2	1.03
$100,001–150,000	9	2.67	5	3.50	4	2.06
$150,001–200,000	7	2.08	5	3.50	2	1.03
More than $200,000	26	7.72	21	14.69	5	2.58

FY: fiscal year.

^aRespondents could select more than one answer.

*Chi-square test for differences between men and women.

Table 2. Associations between employment characteristics and gender.

Differences between men (=0) and women (=1)	Number of respondents	Univariate analysis (N = 340)				Multivariate analysis (N = 597)
		Crude odds ratio	95% CI		p-Value	Adjusted odds ratio	95% CI		p-Value
Practice status^a	337
Employed by an organization	221	1				1
Independent practice	126	0.74	0.47	1.16	0.184	1.01	0.62	1.63	0.983
Weekly work hours^a	337
40 h a week or less	116	1				1
More than 40 h a week	221	0.88	0.56	1.38	0.573	0.78	0.48	1.27	0.319
Weekly workdays^a	337
5 days a week or less	262	1				1
More than 5 days a week	75	0.93	0.55	1.56	0.782	0.98	0.56	1.71	0.943
Worked weekends a year^a	338
None	104	1				1
Works weekends	234	1.28	0.80	2.05	0.305	1.03	0.62	1.70	0.909
Reasonable income^b	338
Otherwise	167	1				1
Income is reasonable (somewhat/extremely reasonable)	171	0.48	0.31	0.75	0.001	0.43	0.27	0.68	<0.001
Compensation type: salary only^b	338
No	237	1				1
Yes	101	1.12	0.70	1.79	0.636	1.13	0.68	1.89	0.635
Compensation type: salary with bonus^b	338
No	228	1				1
Yes	110	1.12	0.71	1.78	0.616	1.02	0.62	1.68	0.943
Compensation type: pure production^b	338
No	268	1				1
Yes	70	0.64	0.37	1.11	0.116	0.73	0.39	1.39	0.341
Bonus type: net collections^b	227
No	154	1				1
Yes	73	0.89	0.50	1.59	0.695	0.99	0.52	1.89	0.983
Bonus type: quality metrics^b	227
No	158	1				1
Yes	69	1.44	0.81	2.57	0.216	1.30	0.70	2.43	0.406
Bonus type: gross billings^b	227
No	214	1				1
Yes	13	1.46	0.48	4.51	0.506	1.82	0.55	6.04	0.325
Bonus type: RVUs^b	227
No	151	1				1
Yes	76	1.72	0.98	3.03	0.058	1.59	0.84	2.99	0.153
Employment benefits^b	338
Otherwise	27	1				1
Has benefits	311	1.29	0.57	2.90	0.543	0.79	0.32	1.95	0.603
Benefit type: health insurance^b	311
No	62	1				1
Yes	249	0.98	0.56	1.71	0.935	0.57	0.30	1.11	0.097
Benefit type: malpractice insurance^b	311
No	39	1				1
Yes	272	1.24	0.63	2.48	0.533	0.94	0.44	2.00	0.872
Benefit type: retirement (401k, pension, etc.)^b	311
No	48	1				1
Yes	263	1.63	0.85	3.11	0.140	1.05	0.50	2.19	0.907
Benefit type: disability insurance^b	311
No	134	1				1
Yes	177	1.52	0.96	2.40	0.074	1.33	0.80	2.21	0.274
Benefit type: dental insurance^b	311
No	106	1				1
Yes	205	1.32	0.82	2.12	0.260	0.83	0.47	1.47	0.521
Benefit type: life insurance^b	311
No	140	1				1
Yes	171	1.26	0.80	1.98	0.320	0.92	0.56	1.53	0.759
Benefit type: educational loan forgiveness^b	311
No	297	1				1
Yes	14	1.34	0.46	3.91	0.594	1.12	0.35	3.54	0.848
COVID-19 affected participant’s 2020 income compared to previous year^b	338
Otherwise	182	1				1
Yes (income was much/slightly lower)	156	0.80	0.52	1.24	0.325	0.96	0.58	1.57	0.860
Educational debt^b	337
No debt	264	1				1
Has school debt	73	3.42	1.98	5.89	<0.001	2.35	1.23	4.50	0.010

^aIn multivariate model, results are adjusted for race, age, specialty and practice status.

^bIn multivariate model, results are adjusted for race, age, weekly work hours, specialty and practice status.

Table 3. Associations between income and gender.

	Model 1	Model 2
	ln(2020 pre-tax income)	ln(projected 2021 pre-tax income)
Variables
Female	−0.378***	−0.338***
	(0.0693)	(0.0701)
Work hours	0.455***	0.452***
	(0.0786)	(0.0842)
Race	0.0384*	0.0393*
	(0.0217)	(0.0220)
Age	−0.121**	−0.138***
	(0.0471)	(0.0477)
Specialty	0.00616	0.00817
	(0.00658)	(0.00687)
Practice status	0.00939	0.0108
	(0.0141)	(0.0152)
Constant	12.36***	12.37***
	(0.149)	(0.154)
Observations	323	319
R-squared	0.197	0.167

Robust standard errors in parentheses.

*p < 0.1.

**p < 0.05.

***p < 0.01.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, PR, upon reasonable request.