Study Finds Gender Gap in Doctors' Pay - NYTimes.com

What a troubling report- even in such "meritocratic" careers such as medicine, the gender gap persists: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/among-doctors-too-women-are-paid-less/. It may be counter-intuitive, but many studies have actually found that higher levels of education equates with a larger gender gap in earnings.

As in some earlier studies, the researchers found a difference in income, with a male doctor's annual salary averaging just over $200,000 and a female's averaging about $168,000. And like previous researchers, they found that the female doctors tended to be in lower-paying specialties, have fewer publications, work fewer hours and hold fewer administrative leadership positions. 

But when these researchers ran the numbers again, this time adjusting for differences in specialty, publications, academic rank, hours worked and leadership positions, they found that the expected average salary for women still fell behind that of their male colleagues. The male doctors made over $12,000 per year more than the women.

Calculated over the course of a 30-year career, the income gap based on sex alone amounted to over $350,000. 

"We really didn't expect to find such a substantial unexplained difference," said Dr. Reshma Jagsi, lead author and an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan. "In Michigan, that amount buys you a house, your kids' education or a nice nest egg for retirement."