The Male-Female Gap in Physician Earnings : Evidence from a Public Health Insurance System

Empirical studies from the U.S. suggest that female physicians earn less than their male counterparts, on average. This gap in earnings does not vanish when personal and market characteristics are controlled for. This paper investigates whether a gender earnings difference can be also observed in a health care system predominantly financed by a public insurance. Using a unique data set of actual physicians' earnings from an Austrian province between 2000 and 2004 we find a gender gap in average earnings of about 30 percent. About half of this gap can be not explained by individual and market characteristics, leaving labor market discrimination one possible explanation for the physicians' male-female earnings difference