Study exposes gender pay gap for Britain's doctors

LONDON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Two-thirds of Britain's top doctors are male and they earn more than their female colleagues, new data on the gender pay gap in medicine revealed Friday.

An update of the gender Pay gap in Medicine Review shows that in Britain's National Health Service (NHS) two in three consultants are men and that men earn 1.53 U.S. dollars for every dollar earned by women.

The review has found that the continued dominance of men in senior medical positions is one of the main causes of the gender pay gap in medicine.

The independent review, led by Professor Dame Jane Dacre from University College London, was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care to advise on action to improve gender equality in the NHS. It is the largest examination of gender pay data ever conducted in the British public sector.

The review shows that the gender pay gap for doctors is 17 percent based on their total pay, while the overall NHS gender pay gap is 23 percent.

For medics working as family doctors in general practice the gender pay gap is 33 percent, far higher than the average in medicine.

Figures show that women are not yet represented in equal proportions in senior medical grades.

There are nearly 32,000 male consultants to 18,000 female, yet two-thirds of doctors in training grades are women.

Women are over-represented in lower paid specialties, such as public health and occupational health, but under-represented in the highest paying specialties, such as urology and surgery.

"The aim of the review is to identify the impact of cultural, practical and psychological issues that contribute to the gender pay gap in medicine," said a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care.

The final report, due to be published in September, is expected to address the underlying causes of the gender pay gap, such as the impact of motherhood and women's career progression while working irregular hours or part-time.