Just like in many other professions, there is a distinct inequality in male and female physician income, and that disparity begins straight out of school even with the same degree and the same GPA. Plus, your starting income often impacts your future years incomes, whether raises at the same medical institution or your next salary at different one. When cumulating over a working lifetime, even single female physicians (where the life choice and child earning penalties are far less likely to apply, with a male/female hours worked disparity of <1%) on average under-earn their male counterparts by $1.6M (and $2.5M less on average). The average female physician makes $110,000/year less than her male colleague.

But you don’t have to go unarmed into this battle of knowledge. Unlike other professions, there’s are specific compensation data providers focusing on physicians (such as the Medical Group Management Association, MGMA), where the cost of obtaining information is far less than the cost of even a single year of under-earning. It will give you a handle on the size of sign-on bonus that would be reasonable to negotiate for, or even if one is available. It will also allow you to more thoroughly assess the cost of working in the non-profit space such as an academic medical center, vs working at a physician-owned practice.

Are you equipped with data?