News: New report suggests lower compensation, gender pay gap, burnout among physicians

Doximity and Curative’s 2023 Physician Compensation Report reveals several concerning trends among physicians, including lower compensation, a pronounced gender pay gap, and physician burnout.

According to the study, between 2021 and 2022, the average compensation for physicians in the United States decreased by 2.4%. Real income, the amount of money a person makes after accounting for inflation, was also victim to a “substantial decrease,” a result of record high inflation, which peaked in June of 2022 at 9.1%.

In an interview with HealthLeaders, Amit Phull, MD, senior vice president and medical director of Doximity, explained the variables responsible for the decrease in compensation:

What we have found is that the reimbursement mix is changing over time. In addition, physicians have been negotiating down their compensation in return for better control over their work-life balance and greater autonomy. In addition, physicians have been taking on more hybrid careers. All of this has come together to result in a slight decline in compensation.

The report noted that while compensation across settings (hospitals, solo practices, academia, etc.) remained “relatively flat,” emergency medicine physicians reported the highest compensation increase for 2022.

The report also noted a remarkable gender pay gap among physicians: in 2022, male doctors earned, on average, $110,000 more than female doctors. Of the 10 medical specialties listed, none demonstrated women earning the same or more than men. In contrast, each specialty showed a pay differential of approximately 10%, except for pediatric cardiology (9.2%) and nuclear medicine (3%).

Using compensation data from 2014-2019, the report observed that during the course of their careers, male doctors made approximately $2 million more than their female counterparts.

The problem of physician burnout was another central theme of the report. A Doximity poll from December 2022 revealed that out of 3,000 physicians, 86% agreed with the claim that they were being overworked. A different survey of 2,000 physicians conducted in May 2023, showed that two thirds of respondents were considering employment change. When asked whether they would accept lower compensation for a better work-life balance, most physicians (71%) stated they would.

According to Doximity and Curative, the data for the 2023 compensation report was drawn from 31,000 self-reported physician compensation surveys from January to December 2022, and 190,000 compensation surveys since 2017.

Editor’s note: To read the report from Doximity and Curative, click here. To read HealthLeaders’ interview with Dr. Phull, click here. To read more about the state of compensation in CDI specifically, check out the 2022 CDI Salary Survey report, which was released in January 2023.