Exploring Disparities in Compensation Among Physicians of Different Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

The Challenge

Disparities in pay and overall compensation based on gender, race, and ethnicity have been identified in numerous industries. It has long been suspected that the same disparities exist in medicine. As one medical specialty society explored how to reduce disparities in the quality of health care provided to its patients, it also grew curious to better understand how its physician members may be differently rewarded in pay and other compensation metrics. While society leadership had a firm grasp on its goals to promote diversity among its workforce, it had not taken a good look at conditions across gender, race, and ethnicity for its existing members. It was decided the time had come to make a thorough assessment of physician compensation, and explore if gender, race, and/or ethnicity-based pay differences actually existed among its membership.

The Strategy

When society leadership met to discuss how they would start to explore the concept of compensation disparity among its members, one of the attendees mentioned a webinar she recently had viewed. That webinar was sponsored by a company called Phairify and it focused directly on the exact concept their society was now discussing. When she visited the Phairify website, she discovered a powerful tool called the Physician Value Exchange, which captured specialty-specific physician compensation and productivity information in partnership with medical specialty societies. Phairify’s web-based platform allowed for the collection and detailed filtering of data across a number of different categories to include age, geographic location, practice type, gender, race, and ethnicity. She proposed that her society should think about joining the Phairify Partnership Program to acquire the data and information they would need to begin exploring if compensation disparities existed in their specialty.

The Selection

Society leadership agreed to explore a partnership with Phairify. They were pleasantly surprised to learn the Phairify Partnership Program was free to the society and its members. During the on-boarding process, Phairify and the society promoted the upcoming study and the importance of maximum participation by its members. They stressed to all society members that generating accurate, timely physician compensation and productivity information was the only way for society members to define their collective and individual value. Society leadership understood the importance of revealing whether there were pay and compensation disparities among its members related to gender, race, and ethnicity. They also realized that a proactive and prospective approach to the issue would be an important step in supporting their advocacy for fairness and diversity within their specialty workforce. As the study launched, the society believed they had taken a unique and very important step to achieving true diversification and equity within their society.

“The decision to explore compensation and pay equity among our society members was not taken lightly. We knew the importance of what we were about to do and wanted to make sure we did it right. Partnering with Phairify ensured we had the best data and information available to us and to our members. I cannot imagine having taken this project on without partnering with Phairify.”

Benefits & Rewards

• Comprehensive, filterable data: Phairify allows the collection of up-to-date, specialty-specific compensation and productivity information which is filterable across a number of measures to include age, gender, race, and ethnicity.
• Powerful workforce insights: Societies can use the results of Phairify data studies to better understand their members. The data and information created through member participation will support society advocacy and initiatives directed both internally and externally.