AAIM Perspectives
Gender Differences in Salary of Internal Medicine Residency Directors: A National Survey

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Abstract

Objectives

Whether salary disparities exist between men and women in medical education leadership roles is not known. The study objective was to determine whether salary disparities exist between male and female Internal Medicine residency program directors, and if so, to identify factors associated with the disparities and explore historical trends.

Methods

The annual Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) survey in August 2012 included items to assess the salary and demographic characteristics of program directors, which were merged with publically available program data. To assess historical trends, we used similarly obtained survey data from 2008 to 2011. The study included program directors of 370 APDIM member programs, representing 95.6% of the 387 accredited Internal Medicine training programs in the United States and Puerto Rico. Of the 370 APDIM member programs, 241 (65.1%) completed the survey, of whom 169 (70.1%) were men and 72 (29.9%) were women. Program directors' total annual salary, measured in $25,000 increments, ranged from $75,000 or less to more than $400,000. Historical trends of mode salary by gender from 2008 to 2012 were assessed.

Results

The mode salary was $200,000 to 225,000 for men and $175,000 to $200,000 for women (P = .0005). After controlling for academic rank, career in general internal medicine, and program director age, the distribution of salary remained different by gender (P = .004). Historical trends show that the difference in mode salary has persisted since 2008.

Conclusions

Leaders in academic medical centers, residency and fellowship directors, and all faculty in medical education need to be aware that salary disparities cited decades ago persist in this sample of medical educators. Closing the gender gap will require continued advocacy for measuring and reporting salary gaps, and changing the culture of academic medical centers.

Section snippets

Data Collection

The Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) administers an annual survey of Internal Medicine program directors, the goal of which is to develop a longitudinal database for GME. Data are used to shape organizational policies and initiatives, and inform APDIM membership of topics important to residency programs.13

For the 2012 survey, e-mail notifications with program-specific hyperlinks to a Web-based questionnaire were sent in August 2012 to program directors and program

Results

Of 370 programs, 241 (65.1%) completed all the survey questions we assessed, of whom 169 (70.1%) were men and 72 (29.9%) were women. There were no significant differences between responders and nonresponders for program description, geographic region represented, board certification rate, program director tenure, or program size (all P > .01). The response rates for surveys administered since 2008 ranged from 65.9% to 71.9%.

The characteristics of program directors by gender are shown in Table.

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate gender disparity in salary for Internal Medicine residency program directors. The disparity exists regardless of region, program type, academic rank, General Internal Medicine specialty, age, or years of experience. In addition, we found that the gap in salary has not narrowed over the past 5 years. Our study findings are similar to recent findings of salary differences for female physician researchers,21 and we extend the scope of the

Conclusions

There is much to learn about women program directors as important leaders in medical education. Leaders in academic medicine centers, residency and fellowship directors, and all faculty in medical education need to be aware that the salary disparities cited decades ago still persist in this important population of medical educators. Reporting this information is an important step in addressing the disparity in an effort to improve it. Sponsorship of women without awareness of, and subsequent

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the program directors who completed the surveys and the Mayo Clinic Survey Research Center for their assistance with survey administration.

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    Funding: This study was supported in part by the Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Residency Office of Educational Innovations as part of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Educational Innovations Project.

    Conflict of Interest: None.

    Authorship: All authors had access to the data and played a role in writing this manuscript.

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