Gender Composition in the Work Environment and Physician Income: Evidence from Longitudinal Data

Abstract

Abstract Background Despite the rising representation of women in the physician workforce, gender-based income disparities persist. In this study, we explore the role of representation of women in the work environment in physicians’ Medicare income and the income gender gap. Methods Our main analytic sample is a balanced panel of 371,472 physicians over nine years, obtained from the Medicare Part B Fee-For-Service Provider Utilization and Payment Data (2012-2020) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We use panel regressions with physician and year fixed effects to quantify how total Medicare income, patient volume, and per-patient income respond to gender composition changes at the specialty and practice level, controlling for other practice characteristics. We allow the gender composition to have differential impacts on women and men by interacting them with physician’s gender. In addition, we examined the subsample of physicians who have not switched specialties or practices and explored differences in the effects by practice size. Results Increasing women’s representation in physician work environments impacts men's and women’s income differently. We find that for women physicians, a 1% increase in the share of women in the same specialty leads to a 1.401% higher annual income, 1.284% more patients, and 0.117% more per-patient income. Conversely, these effects are reversed for men. Changes in women’s share at the practice level have qualitatively similar effects. Among physicians who have not switched specialties or practices, we still find positive effects for women but no negative effects for men. Furthermore, these effects are stronger in solo or small practices than in large practices. Conclusions Increasing women’s representation in the work environment helps increase income for women physicians but may reduce income for men physicians. Our findings support the efforts in increasing women’s representation in the physician workforce to mitigate gender income disparities and demonstrate the nuanced differences in its impact by gender and the size of the practice to refine policy recommendations.