Physician pay has climbed across nearly every specialty over the past two years, but new compensation data released this year show the gains have not been shared evenly.
Gaps between genders, generations and practice settings are not closing in several specialties. In a handful of them, they are getting wider.
Compensation data from Medscape, Doximity and Resolve, along with a Yale School of Medicine analysis of federal faculty salary data, point to seven specialties where the divide is most pronounced, along with broader trends in how gender, generation and employment status are reshaping physician pay.
1. Ophthalmology. Male ophthalmologists earned an average of $497,572 in 2024, compared with $418,167 for female ophthalmologists — a 16% gap, according to Doximity data. In academic ophthalmology, the divide is proving durable rather than temporary: a Yale School of Medicine analysis of Association of American Medical Colleges faculty salary data found female assistant professors’ pay grew 3.41% a year between 2016 and 2024, compared with 1.98% for men. Left unaddressed, that pace would cost women in the field a projected $1.04 million in pay over a 30-year career.
2. Pediatric nephrology. The specialty posted the widest gender pay gap of any field in Doximity’s 2024 data: 16.5%, with men averaging $288,974 and women $241,239.
3. Allergy and immunology. Men earned $331,631 on average in 2024, compared with $277,614 for women — a 16.3% gap, the second-widest among the specialties Doximity tracked.
4. Gastroenterology. The gender pay gap reached 15.6% in 2024, with men earning $554,378 on average and women $468,061.
5. Urology. Only 42% of millennial urologists received a pay increase in the past year, the lowest share of any specialty in Medscape’s 2026 millennial compensation survey. The specialty has also carried one of medicine’s largest dollar-figure gender gaps historically: $91,117 in 2022 Doximity data, with men averaging $515,850 and women $424,733, per an earlier analysis.
6. Pediatrics. 43% of millennial pediatricians got a raise in the past year, the second-lowest rate among the 29 specialties ranked by Medscape.
7. Neurology. 44% of millennial neurologists received a raise, the third-lowest rate in the survey.
8. The generational split. Across all specialties, 54% of millennial physicians received a raise in the past year, compared with 35% of Gen X and Baby Boomer physicians, according to Medscape data. Sixty-seven percent of millennials say they still believe they are underpaid.
9. Employed vs. independent. Independent physicians reported average compensation of $374,000 in Medscape’s 2023 survey, compared with $344,000 for employed physicians — a $30,000 gap that shows little sign of closing as consolidation accelerates. Physicians Advocacy Institute and Avalere Health data show 48,100 physicians left independent practice for hospital or corporate employment since 2024, including 29,600 in 2025 alone.
10. The base salary split. Women physicians’ median base salary was $320,000 in Resolve’s 2026 Physician Compensation Report, which the report characterized as roughly 25% below men’s $400,000 median — a gap it said held steady even as overall pay climbed, Becker’s ASC reported. The same analysis, which reviewed more than 4,000 physician employment contracts across all 50 states, found partner physicians earned a median $350,000, compared with $342,720 for employed physicians and $316,921 for independent contractors.
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