APA’s Women Psychiatrists Caucus Urges Women to Seek Equitable Salaries
Here are tips to help women psychiatrists negotiate the salaries they deserve as part of the caucus’ efforts to provide mentorship and support. This is the second in a series of articles by the caucus.
Getty Images/iStock/AndreyPopov
Despite women now outnumbering men in medical school and as APA members, they continue to face salary disparities. These disparities are evident at the start of women psychiatrists’ careers and persist 10 years later, according to a 2022 report in JAMA Network Open by Eve Catenaccio, M.D. Also, Christopher Whaley and colleagues found that women physicians earn $2 million less than male colleagues over the course of their lifetime after adjustment for factors such as hours worked, practice type, specialty, and clinical revenue.
At an institutional level, salary equity is more than a moral obligation. It is one that makes financial sense as well when considering recruitment, retention, productivity, and employee engagement costs.
Here are some ways that organizations can reduce these salary disparities:
•
Collect physician salary data by gender and race annually. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research predicts that it will take until 2059 to achieve pay parity; when considering intersectionality and women of color, it is even slower to change.
•
Provide formal mentorship and sponsorship programs for faculty that discuss salary, negotiation, and salary equity.
•
Commit to transparency and publish salary data.
•
Consider negotiations for all or create processes without negotiations for all.
•
Commit to institutional initiatives to enhance salary equity and publish these institutional plans broadly.
Although institutions have a large role in enhancing salary equity, there are also helpful individual strategies for women physicians to advocate. Anecdotally, women psychiatrists, including trainees, report being told that they cannot and/or should not negotiate their salaries. Among other reasons, many are concerned that they may be viewed by potential supervisors as being overly demanding.
Here are ways individuals can advocate for equitable salaries:
•
Seek coaching in salary negotiation. Role-play the conversation before negotiations start. Don’t hesitate to engage in more than one round of salary negotiations after you receive a written job offer.
•
Do your homework and know market value. Review publicly available information on salaries such as state databases and the database of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
•
Get mentorship from senior faculty as well as peers. Ask others in positions similar to yours what questions to ask during negotiations.
•
Know what to ask for beyond salary, such as benefits, administrative stipends, signing bonuses, moving expenses, relocation incentives, CME/professional development funds, and endowment funds.
•
Appreciate your true value. Remember that most practices need you more than you need them. Don’t accept the first offer and always negotiate up. Aim high as there will always be compromises. Emphasize any advantage you may have such as added degrees (for example, a Ph.D.)
•
Have your lawyer review the paperwork before you sign your contract.
•
Get involved with your institution’s efforts to monitor and address salary equity.
•
Know your institution’s career advancement criteria and timelines. Promotion levels come with salary increases at each step.
For additional ways to find mentorship opportunities and information on salary equity, join the APA Women Psychiatrists Caucus for our second year of “Mentorship Mondays,” which will start again in the fall, and listen to our podcast series “APA Women Psychiatrists Caucus Chats: Conversations With Women Leaders.” It can be accessed here or on your favorite podcast platform. The stories of these women leaders are a collective form of mentorship and offer useful insights.
Finally, consider joining the Women Psychiatrists Caucus. If you are interested, please contact Madonna Delfish at [email protected]. ■
Resources
Biographies
Jacqueline A. Hobbs, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor and residency program director in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is the Assembly representative for the APA’s Women Psychiatrists Caucus.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Psychiatric News
History
Published online: 23 July 2024
Published in print: August 1, 2024 – August 31, 2024
Keywords
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Export Citations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.
There are no citations for this item
View Options
View options
Get Access
Login options
Already a subscriber? Access your subscription through your login credentials or your institution for full access to this article.
Personal login Institutional Login Open Athens loginNot a subscriber?
PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.
Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).