To evaluate if there are gender differences in salary among University of California (UC) Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) physicians. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study of board certified academic UC MFM physicians. Physicians were identified from the websites of the five UC MFM programs in July 2017. Salary information was determined from Transparent California and compared by gender. This public service provides information on the compensation of public employees in California. Data on potential confounders were collected including years since board certification, practice site, academic rank, NIH funding, additional degrees (PhD or Masters), number of publications, advanced administrative positions, and h-index (a metric of scholarly productivity that combines the number of publications with the number of times the publications have been cited). Categorical variables were compared with the chi square test, nonparametric continuous variables were compared using Kruskal-Wallis. RESULTS: We identified 35 UC MFM physicians (12 (34.2%) male and 23 (65.7%) female) at the 5 UC sites. The median salary was $549,917 for male and $395,647 for female UC MFM physicians (p¼0.024). There were no statistically significant differences by gender in years since board certification, NIH funding, practice site, additional degrees, number of publications, and h-index; however, male MFM physicians were more likely to hold advanced positions (58.3% vs. 17.4%, p¼0.01). CONCLUSION: When compared to male UC MFM physicians, female UC MFM salaries were approximately $150,000 lower. Inquiry into the mechanism for this disparity is needed.
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